The Mentalist 5.11 "Days of Wine and Roses" Review

Lisbon (Robin Tunney) pays a visit to Judge Davis (Amy Aquino) in the hopes of getting a warrant to proceed with the investigation on Volker (Henry Ian Cusick) particularly his financial records to ascertain the identity of the hitman he used.  She's obtained an independent autopsy on the Vic Amanda Shaw, as her death was ruled a suicide, the pathology report indicates the ligature marks aren't consistent with suicide.  The judge is surprised Bertram paid for an other examination but Lisbon admits she paid for it herself.  The judge thinking this is personal for her.  Which it is considering she promised Amanda she would protect her and keep her safe.  She feels Judge Davis won't be intimated by Volker or the fact he's friends with the governor.  How wrong could she be.  Good to see Lisbon being so emotionally involved, just as long that doesn't lead to her making mistakes.

She then arrives at another CS where Patrick (Simon Baker) is already there, observing the chess players, one in particular, as he drinks from a whiskey bottle.  He remarks on Lisbon's mood, hoping she has found a breakthrough in the Volker case, or love cos she deserves it.  At this point many will say it's kind of odd Patty should have said that considering he hasn't mentioned anything like that before.  Don't think it really means anything about his 'feelings' for her though.  He seemed genuinely sincere and anyway she doesn't reply.

The Vic is a model, Charlie (Michelle LaRue) who Patrick points out shaved her legs and so was meeting someone for a date.  They always get those tell tale indicators which point to a date or romantic evening.  Whilst Lisbon is left to talk to the first responders, Patrick makes a beeline for the cheese players.  He challenges one of them by taking the place of his opponent on the undertaking he'll win his money back for him.  Then asks where the Vic's wallet is since he bought an expensive bottle of whiskey since he's not that good a player.  As Patrick takes him to check mate.

Lisbon and Patrick talk with Charlie's parents, Jeff (Sam Hennings) and Lisa (Kathe E Mazur) who tell them about her Lisa's stolen ruby necklace but Lisa's insists the maid did it and so she had to fire her.  Especially since Charlie liked her and wouldn't want her to be fired of Charlie had stolen the necklace.  Charlie was at a drug rehab facility, which is the duo's next point of call.  Curiously there was no sighting of the maid.

At rehab Dr Reuben (Dennis Boutsikaris) who runs Oasis Ranch Rehab, has a psychiatry degree which Patrick finds amusing, not to mention perfect since the psychiatrist almost always does it.  Re Pilot ep where Dr Linus Wagner (Zeljko Ivanik) was a psychiatrist, aka the Red John copycat killer.  Nice bit of continuity going a long way back.  Though he did appear in the show again in season 3's Ball of Fire.  Reuben also he points out Patrick must have been in a facility himself, which he has.  But Patrick seemed rather standoffish in the sense he was nonchalant with the place since he's had his fair share of psycho analysis.  Maybe it was just a touche moment as Patty looks at Lisbon, ha.

Reuben also mentions they have high profile patients that they have to keep reporters out, also how people who are newly sober tend to act out sexually.  Surely not a reference to Patrick, since he does have a Red John obsession meaning he can't move on and meet someone else.  Mind you, that wasn't the case with Lorelei.  He did sleep with her albeit in the interests of getting info on RJ and then there was Erica.

Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) finds Volker paid a Charles Milk $25,000 and Volker turns up in her office.  He tells her she looks good which was just his way to get under her skin and unnerve her since Lisbon did look relieved to have him gone when she throws him out of her office.  He mentions she's been working out, but that was after he tells her she should have asked him for his financial records as he believes in transparency.  yeah to the point in being so 'free' with the detective investigating him.  Has he been spying on her, should say perving, he's rather creepy.  Lisbon did look a little out of her depth without Patrick there to interject and basically butt in with his observations and wry comments.  However throughout the ep she insists she doesn't need his help and will handle this on her own.

Patrick is complimentary of her good police work, admiring her "pluck."  Yet he's worried Volker may be inside her head, he knows what that's like, having an adversary inside his head.  He wants her to be careful.  Whilst he sneaks off into the rehab facility and continues to nose around, er, investigate.  Lisbon sends in reinforcements in the form of Cho (Tim Kang) well to babysit and it's always Cho.  Like he and Patty have some sort of an understanding.

Patrick meets Johanna Lyle, who was Charlie's counsellor and tells Patrick she's not a doctor and also that she doesn't smoke.  She's also been burning the midnight oil she claims by having to work nights.  Anyway she was my suspect as soon as she opened her mouth!  She introduces them to Charlie's roommate Susie (Mary Lynn Rajskub) and Patrick notices a card from her parents saying they're proud of her.  The roommate asks Patrick if it's 'Jane' as in Austen or 'Jayne' as in Mansfield, obviously cos the two have different spellings.  Patrick replies 'Austen'.  That was a clue for later since it relates to the spelling of his name for 'journalistic purposes' since Van Pelt finds Tweets posted about the facility and celebs/patients there.

Patrick proceeds to gatecrash a rehab class where he wafts around the jasmine perfume which he sprayed onto his hanky from Charlie's bottle.  Obviously smells trigger memories, but in this case it was just another ploy.  There are two men there Armando (Jean Paul San Pedro) and Phoenix (Ken Luckey) and one of them is her boyfriend, so he sets them up saying Armando was sleeping with Charlie.  Then once again steps back in true Patrick form where they're at each other's throats.

Patrick later surmises Lisbon is going to her Thursday night poker game and it's an attempt for her to try another judge for a warrant.  This time she asks Judge Manchester (John Rubinstein) and uses the 'fear' card to get her way.  Obviously Volker or someone got to Judge Davis since she doesn't oblige with the warrant for Milk.  It was apparent the way she refused and even Manchester knew about Davis refusing.  Anyway Lisbon gets her warrant and also a call from Volker telling her in no uncertain terms Milk won't be helpful, which turns out to be true since Van Pelt finds him at a railroad crossing dead along with other two others, apparently a drive by shooting.  That was convenient.  But were the couple just innocent bystanders?

At rehab Patrick speaks with Susie again and asks her for a cup of tea, then thanks her by calling her Margaret, her real name.  That's why she asked him about Austen or Mansfield.  Also no addict would have a stash of camomile or mint tea.  She found Charlie changed after she received her parents card and was writing a letter in Spanish which she threw out.  She only knew the words 'Lo siento' Spanish for "I'm sorry."  Thus Charlie was writing to the maid.  Patrick then sets about stealing belongings from the patients.  He's with Lisbon when she gets the call about the thefts and she doesn't accompany him, but turns up later.  Cho sees Patrick pocket a watch in their rouse to draw out the killer.

This leads to another meeting with Reuben and Johanna and surprised that no one saw how Patrick's behaviour had changed.  As he now acts like he's in need of help for his kleptomania.  Lisbon mentions the ruby necklace is found in his car and lo and behold, my suspect, Johanna heads directly to her secret hiding place and pulls out the necklace! No one even knew she had the necklace so why go and check.  Even of they did find it they wouldn't know for certain who had put it there.  This time Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) gets to talk with her, darn and last time I said it was always Van Pelt who did that.

Johanna's a gambling addict and was in debt.  She needs the money and so killed Charlie for the necklace.  Rigsby is disgusted she let her parents believe their daughter was an addict and she claims she's got a disease.  Rather ironic since she's there to help people in that very same position and yet she can't help herself. Especially after her line to Patrick, "it's not your fault, there's nothing to be ashamed of,"  re his kleptomania.  Well no there isn't considering he's not a kleptomaniac to begin with.  But you Johanna are a whole different ballgame.

Nice moments: Patrick with his fists in response to Reuben with his thumbs up!  Also Lisbon finally asking Patrick for help after thinking she could go it alone.  Hey she deserves some credit here of course she managed quite a bit without Patrick being around.  That meeting with Volker and then the phonecall from him.  She exhausted all legal avenues like a good detective.
As for Patty, made a few boo-boos, okay Johanna didn't smoke but spent time around smoke, thus a reference to casinos and she mentions not having to commute between here and halfway to Reno.  What's in Reno?  Casinos.

Patrick playing chess against himself, priceless.

The title could be a reference to the 1896 poem Vitae Summa Brevis by Ernest Dowson : "They are not long the days of wine and roses.  Out of a misty dream our path emerges for a while and then closes with a dream."  Could mean all kinds of things here, re Lisbon's path emerging with Volker, wonder how long that will last.  Hopefully not long since we don't really want Lisbon getting her head all messed up in the same way as Patrick with Red John.  It could get boring having two elusive adversaries for both our leads.

Also the title is a 1962 Jack Lemmon film about two people who become alcoholics and need to deal with their addiction.

CSI:NY: Beyond 10 Seasons...or at Least 10

                                       
Every year CSI:NY comes up with exceptional stories and every year it ends up being on the bubble, whereas other lightweight shows always get renewed without problems.  This year with the close of season 9 in the US, the show once again finds itself on the bubble.  You'd think by now that all concerned with the show would get some kudos and recognition from the network after 9 years of hard slog.  But no.  Guess it's too much to ask for a show to get a renewal for a double figure 10 without any hassles, or keeping fans on tenterhooks.

Pam Veasey commented on how "it is sort of an incredible challenge each year to leave it open."  As she told TVGuide.  As well as adding "no one told us to write it so it ends."  Well no one would, would they?  Maybe that's a good thing and maybe it isn't.  But I for one have been saying it every year the show has been on the bubble, this is the third time now, that there should be at least 10 years of CSI:NY if not more.  Practically mentioned it in most of my articles. Of course we want more seasons!

Season 9 was more character focused and though it has yet to air on TV in the UK, Channel 5 have put it back this year for some reason since we used to get it in February.  Hate the way their excuse is to say that "schedules are fixed a few weeks in advance" so they won't know when it's airing but they didn't give any reason as to why it's not being shown now.

Gary Sinise said the season 9 finale entitled Life Today is a "very nice ending.  I think people who have watched these characters grow will enjoy it."   The episode involves Mac (Gary Sinise) and Flack (Eddie Cahill) under siege in the precinct as an angry mob gathers outside.  They're angry over whether or not an unarmed man was shot by the police.  We all know how tense those scenarios can get in real life too.

Hopefully it'll be as exciting as Snow Day.  That was a great Flack ep: never seen Flack run around so much!!  However on a serious note Gary explained how the plot is kind of based on events from the 1970's when a police station was 'stormed' and officers were injured.

However some fans are already bemoaning the end of the show since they point to Hill Harper, who played Sheldon Hawkes, leaving and joining Covert Affairs.  Thus they feel he knows something the rest of us don't.  Which isn't necessarily the case, especially since Hill tweeted that if the show returns he could be back.  Though that could even be for just guest spots.

I for one however refuse to give up and am keeping everything physically able to crossed!! I need my Flack fix and Danny (Carmine Giovinazzo) and Jo (Sela Ward) and Adam (AJ Buckley)...

You can reminisce season 1 with my book New York Minutiae. An Unofficial and Unauthorized Guide to CSI:NY.  Available online from amazon, Barnes and Noble, WH Smith etc

The Vampire Diaries 4.11 "Catch Me If You Can" Review

                                        
Lots happening this episode as Rebekah (Claire Holt) recaps what Stefan (Paul Wesley) said last episode about each of the players being on a team paired together and how they have nothing.  The sheriff (Marguerite MacIntyre) arrests Shane (David Alpay) after what April told them last episode and he's not talking so Bonnie (Kat Graham) tells her father (Rick Worthy) she wants a minute with him and what a long minute that turned out to be.  Before Shane was arrested, he helped Bonnie control her magic which she was unable to do.  Here he mutters under his breath that they're right he did kill those council members in a ritual.

Stefan and Rebekah break into Shane's office and look for a headstone that will help them in the search for the cure.  Rebekah also tells Stefan how he was great in the '20's they had more fun.  He says he was crazy back then and she remarks on the sex being great cos he replies, he was crazy and it was crazy sex.  Ugh you just thought they'd be at each other's throats there and then but no, someone breaks into his office also looking for the headstone.  When they try and question him, they realize he's been compelled since he bites off his tongue and then stabs himself in the neck.

Klaus (Joseph Morgan) says the plan's changed and he sends the vampires after Jeremy (Steven R McQueen) so he'll have to kill them.  Otherwise Matt (Zach Roerig) will be killed instead.  They're hunted in the woods by the vampires and head for the cabin as they won't be able to get in.  Elena (Nina Dobrev) arrives of course and saves Matt.  Then takes Matt home.  Wouldn't he have been safer at the cabin., not only that but then he turns up for work too.  Meanwhile Kol (Nathanial Buzolic) has Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Jeremy cornered at the Grill.  He wants Jeremy to back off from killing the vampires which he killed instead cos he doesn't want Silas raised to bring an end to the world, Kol being an immortal.  Of course they refuse and so Kol captures Damon after he tells Jeremy to run.  Jeremy standing there like that, dumfounded instead of running.  Oh my Jeremy what long eyelashes you have!

Kol compels Damon to hunt Jeremy and so will continue to do this since no one can un-compel him.  Damon later spies Jeremy at the Grill when Matt returns to work and makes a beeline for him, he can't help himself.   They end up in the tunnels and Jeremy shoots Damon before making his escape.  Elena calls Stefan for help and Rebekah answers.  Seems like Stefan won't help.  However he does turn up to help when Damon is about to attack Jeremy.  Telling her she hasn't seen him when he's not in love with her.  Neither have we.  Unless the Ripper counts.  Thus this shows us a new Stefan who no longer is whiny, and pining after Elena all the time.  Instead he and Rebekah finally get together, just what she wants.

Rebekah is also tormented by both Kol and Klaus when she has the white ash dagger pointed at her by Kol and Klaus has to save her too.  He tells her she needs training in daggering a sibling and she storms off too.  Well he's had plenty.  Kol also tells her about how this family is broken mentioning Elijah not rearing his head and she replies this family was ruined before the search for the cure.

Stefan has Damon tied up in the cellar so we're back there once more and tells him he can't let him out as he will kill Jeremy and since he can't be un-compelled he'll have to stay there.  His curse, ha. is not being able to see Elena either as he'll compel her to let him out.  Elena insists she won't but she can't control compulsion anymore than Damon can and plus there's the sire bond.

Shane mentions how Grams must be in agony and he knows Bonnie wonders about that, causing her to lose the plot once more with her magic.  Until he stops her. He tells her father he's the only one who can control her and he insists she listen to him.  That was manipulative of Shane the way he used her to get out and still keep his plan for raising Silas on track.

So who sent the mysterious compelled stranger to retrieve the headstone?  Also Rebekah hides it from Stefan since she's the only one who didn't betray him, like he did when he rescued Jeremy.  Showing he cares about Jeremy or maybe he has some other ulterior motive.  Elena will be in his debt now for what he did for them.  Klaus arrives at the Gilbert's house and tells them he's their only protection against Kol but they don't buy it.  Elena comes up with the plan that in order to kill as many vampires as possible Jeremy should kill Kol and thus all those vampires he sired will also die, speeding up the process and revealing the tattoo on his arms.  Take it none of the main leads were sired by Kol then.

Good to see Damon and Elena being kept apart, ha, for those who don't want to see them together.  Also Matt points out how she's changed as a vampire since she wouldn't have trusted Damon with Jeremy.  But Elena is still selfish and moans too much, so that hasn't changed much, ha.  It's like she's pushed her brother aside in order to do anything for Damon and to have Damon, like telling him she loves him, as if that will stop him from killing Jeremy.  Also Elena had no qualms about all those vampires/people who will die with her plan to kill Kol.

CSI 13.1 "Karma To Burn" Review

                                     
Season 13 opens with the continuation of the two-part story with DB (Ted Danson) from Homecoming, still on the hunt for his missing granddaughter, Katie (Mia Hayes).  He opens his safe and takes out his gun, something his wife, Barbara (Peri Gilpin) thought she'd never see him do again.  DB: "Neither did I."  Finn (Elisabeth Shue) gets a text about Ecklie (Marc Vann) and makes a call to DB and thinks Crenshaw (Billy Magnussen) is up to something but she goes along with him hoping to get some whereabouts on Katie.  The CSIs arrive at the CS and Sara (Jorga Fox) leaves messages for Nick (George Eads) who's nowhere to be seen, or reached.

DB insists on conducting evidence gathering even if Sara tells him it won't hold up in court, which is the furthermost thing from his mind.  Sara found some trace outside, some sort of plaster and finds the same inside.  As well as an LVPD torch under Katie's window.  Ecklie is rushed to hospital and Morgan (Elisabeth Harnois) sits outside waiting for news.  Greg (Eric Szmanda) arrives and she asks David (David Berman) to get back to work.    DB picks up the note on Katie's bed reading "KARMA."  Which is what Ecklie said last episode about McKeen's son being killed.  He got his family and now McKeen (Connor O'Farrell) will get DB's family too in return.  DB only wants Brass's men on the case since there's a cop involved and there will be more dirty cops on the payroll.

Finn is taken to a club by Crenshaw and he takes her phone after she says she was in touch with Moreno (Enrique Murciano) and leaves the guns in the glovebox.  Obviously he's going to have another concealed weapon and can pick one up from anywhere.  Finn is bored and he leads her to a backroom and pulls a gun on her, taking her to Katie where she's being held by crooked cop Kimball (Peter Onorati).

A call is made to DB providing him with proof of life which makes him even more determined to kill McKeen.  Kimball wants DB to talk with McKeen after Brass already paid him a visit, he's in holding.  McKeen wants the $2 million which Gilmore (Craig Sheffer) had his wife steal from McKeen's drug dealers.  That's why she was shot.  Only no one can find Gilmore.  DB's got 24 hours or Katie dies.  Not likely McKeen will hold up his end of the bargain anyway.  He's after payback and revenge.

Two cops find Nick drinking and he throws a beer bottle against the wall.  They take him in, thought he was asking for a beating, ha.  Finn is left alone with Katie, reassuring her everything will be fine.  She opens up an air vent and gets her to climb in before Crenshaw returns and she's beaten up by him, but not before putting up a fight of her own.  Obviously sleazy Crenshaw wanted something more than that from her.  Sara is called by Nick and finds him in a cell.  He quit but she tells him he can quit tomorrow, not tonight.  He sobered up pretty quickly to get to work.

Greg says they found the abandoned car used in Ecklie's shooting and the rifle inside belonged to a cop.  They need the pellets from the hospital and Hodges (Wallace Langham) volunteers to collect them, just cos he wanted to see Morgan.  She tells him about how when she was little she wanted him shot and now that's happened and then kisses Hodges.  Well nothing will come of that of course.  They find a lead to a new sex club opened in the area, after analysis of the note doesn't reveal anything.  DB wants Sara to break the paper down and see where it was manufactured.  Nick and Sara find sex ads on the reverse of the letters and Greg narrows down the ink that was used, dating back to 2008.  Thus giving them the location of the defunct factory.  SO Finn is still giving as good as Crenshaw and is about to be shot by him when Moreno shoots him.  Hey the cavalry arriving just in time.

She's distraught that Katie is nowhere to be found even after a lengthy search and DB is angry that she let her alone like that, but she should get checked out at the hospital.  The trace Sara found shows animal hair inside which is analyzed as bovine hair.  Henry (Jon Wellner) comments on Nick's appearance when he returns to work.  Whilst DB has problems with his family especially Maya (Brooke Niven) who doesn't want him protecting her or lying to her anymore, as he did in Seattle about the campus killings.  She slaps him and there's nothing he can do.

DB is having flashes about identifying Katie's DB on the table and also about shooting McKeen in his cell and he really can't control his anger.  As his mind plays tricks on him, though it's understandable he would be that way.  He wants Doc Robbins ( and everyone else to get to work and find him some real evidence but Nick refuses to leave.  Instead he tells him Gilmore's phone is still on and he knows where he is. They find him and he tells them he paid McKeen the money already.  Suddenly a shot is fired and he's killed.  Brass is angry as Gilmore was a material witness in the police corruption investigation and DB and Nick led McKeen right to him, since McKeen didn't know where he was and wanted Gilmore dead all along.

Doc finds traces of a fungus in Crenshaw's lungs responsible for Valley fever and the search area is still too wide, seems like anything they come up with seems too little for DB and in the end it's really him who figures out the puzzle leading them to Katie, re the animal hair.

Greg finds the bullet used on Gilmore belonged to a former cop and Finn finds DB on Katie's bed where he figures out she's still alive.  Otherwise Crenshaw would have killed them both after they delivered proof of life.  Then sees in Kimball's file that he has children of his own and a daughter the same age as Katie thus he wouldn't hurt her.  He also realizes that the trace in the plaster dated back to World War II when they built houses using animal hair to hold the materials together.  Nick had always maintained they were looking for a dairy farm or something along those lines and they narrow down the area where such houses were built.  One such house belongs to the former cop's wife.  Here they find him dead along with two other cops but no sign of Katie, except for blood.  Finally they see scuff marks in front of a dresser and DB finds Katie behind it.  The man told her to hide.

Outside Kimball is cornered and claims he's not a rat and is about to shoot himself when Brass shoots him first.  DB brings Katie home and sees another image where he hears Barbara saying she can't do this anymore, after she looks at CS photos on his desk.  Nick and Sara have an argument over his quitting and she tells him, "words have consequences," she didn't verbally quit.  She left a note for Grissom and walked out.  Greg breaks up their fight by saying they're family and don't treat each other like this.  Yeah they do.  Oh and Ecklie pulls through.

Just to mention Moreno was working with Crenshaw all that time and he didn't realize he was dirty.  Not that that's any sort of criticism against him but it's kind of like his stepfather, Sam Vega last season being into what he was.  Enrique Murciano didn't have much to do in his two scenes which is a bit of a waste of both actor and character.
                           
Liked the way Brass paid a visit to McKeen after putting Mitchell (Larry Mitchell) on the door outside and threatened him if anything happened to Katie, "I got people too."  You can see the number of years he's spent with the PD putting him in good stead to throw his weight around and especially with someone as despicable as former undersheriff McKeen.

DB really showed his emotions this episode and was put through the wringer by practically everyone concerned.  At least he got one over on McKeen by transferring him to a federal facility where he'll spend the rest of his days in isolation.  Oh and the $2 million was donated to the Crime Lab in McKeen's family's name.  SO much for his kind of Karma!  A lot of friction around the lab too with Nick and Sara and she just doesn't want to see him quit even if he tells her it's not up to her.  She took a year out to clear her head and came back, but he doesn't want to hear it.

Greg being thoughtful and bringing Morgan a change of clothes at the hospital was just so Greg!  Showing her he's there for her, not that she really acknowledges him or anything.  Hoping something more is said about those Seattle campus murders since it seems to be another big part of DB's life in Seattle, they can't just mention it and not bring it up again.  Overall it's a typical CSI episode where the evidence finally does its job and reaches a happy conclusion for DB and his family.  Hopefully we'll get back to seeing our CSIs on screen for longer in episodes to come.

Revenge 2.8 "Lineage" Review

                                            
This upside takes us back to 2006 showing how Emily (Emily VanCamp) met Aiden (Barry Sloane) and saved Ashley (Ashley Madekwe).  Seems like Emily already knew Takeda (Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa) and she helped him take Aiden under his wing.  The Grayson's aren't without their own flashbacks, as Victoria's (Madeleine Stowe) mother, Marion (Adrienne Barbeau) drops into town for Thanksgiving, new man in tow, Mr Greevey (Matt Riedy).  She plans on marrying him and Victoria reluctantly lets her stay.  Daniel (Josh Bowman) is still at college and is into poetry in a big way. To the point of actually getting Conrad (Henry Czerny) to read some of his poems, as if he'd actually approve of a son of his writing poetry.  Perish the thought, as he did with his poems!

Jack's (Nick Wechsler) father, Carl (Brian Goodman) has a run in with Joe Ryan (Michael Rose) who is nothing more than a thug extorting protection money from the businesses at the wharf, as are his sons, present day.  It's funny though how Jack doesn't recall the name Ryan, unless he never heard it, since he would have recalled them now and been weary of starting a partnership with them.

Ashley apparently was about to 'sell' herself in return for money  and Emily sends her away with money after getting details on the whereabouts of a Dmitri (Timothy v Murphy).  He's into girls and trafficking them.  Was going to say nothing's changed with Ashley then, ha.  Emily tells Aiden who is tending bar, his Russian stinks. Takeda tells her about Colleen who is missing and turns out she's Aiden's sister.  He foils Emily's plan to get in with Dmitri but she saves him from Aiden shooting him.  However that was shortlived as Aiden manages to get his revenge on Dmitri and shoots him anyway, all that for nothing.

Victoria flashes back to the men her mother knew, who always liked her back when she was 15 and how she became who she is now cos of her.  Victoria tells Greevey of the time her mother threw her out, and how beforehand she had her shoot Thomas otherwise she'd never see her mother again.  Maybe that would have been a good thing.  Victoria wrecks her mother's last chance at making a 'life' for herself, well ensnaring another rich man and afterwards she and Conrad comment on how he paid Greevey the money for staging the meeting with her mother.  SO she got her revenge, as did Conrad, kind of by burning Daniel's poetry.  He's good but Conrad wants him to run Grayson Global.

Carl's friend shoots Ryan with his father's gun and they let that storyline go all season 1 until now, until his brats take over from him. Nolan's (Gabriel Mann) CFO, Marco (EJ Bonilla) tells him the accountants have discovered the account in the Cayman's is missing over a billion dollars and he comes clean about David Clark being an investor and how he couldn't let his daughter suffer.  Seems like Nolan gives his heart too readily to people who stab him in the back, as Padma will probably do the same.

Present Day

 As Dcclan (Connor Paolo) tells Kenny Ryan (JR Bourne) [surprised no one's heard of them and their dirty dealings,] they can't sell expensive booze and Kenny mentions what his father used to say.  Aiden can't believe he ended up with her six years later and she shows him her father's conspiracy box, with the affinity symbol which he sees on her wrist.  Ugh don't trust that Aiden cos there's more to him than meets the eye, especially the way he looked at her tattoo.  Emily remarks about "a never ending journey."  Is that her revenge or the time the show will be on air, ha.

Daniel calls Marco for news on NolCorp and he's more than happy to oblige.  Victoria wants Conrad's help to protect Daniel and he regrets how perhaps he should have let him become a poet after all, now he's in the firing line.  They have to stop him from taking over the board.

It was good how the pieces from six years ago all came together in the present day, of how Victoria got revenge on Marion but then she and Conrad turn around and basically manipulate Daniel into doing what they want him to do and became his father in essence.  Victoria of course not learning from her past and her mother's mistakes, is destined to continue making her own.  SO no matter what revenge she got on her mother, she still isn't any better than her.  As for Conrad he was married before meeting Victoria and it seems that Victoria probably manipulated him into marrying her too, judging from that painter lover of hers from season 1 and everything that happened between them.  Including Conrad's affair with Lydia.

They keep adding more facets to the Flight conspiracy as Aiden knows about it and his father was a baggage handler at Heathrow, but says his father would never do a thing like planting a bomb, if I heard right.  So what did the Russian mobsters have to do with the plane, or was that just one of Takeda's missions since he tells Emily after she pulls this one off, she can get back on track to her own revenge.  Let's hope this part of the plot doesn't get too confusing as they get more people involved in it.

Funny Victoria having spent time in a mental institution when she was 15, didn't help though, ha.  She and Emily's mother, Kara also being in the same boat of being put away due to circumstances beyond their control.  But what did David see in Victoria to begin an affair with her anyway.  Wonder if Victoria saw a reflection of Marion when she looked in the mirror and not of herself?  She is after all, her mother's daughter.

Oh and it seems everyone had the same hair styles post 2006 and circa 2006!!  This flashback episode was similar in many respects to that of season 1's episode 20 Legacy, back to 2002 when Emily was about to get that cheating guy of hers with the toilet seat.  here Ashley locks herself in the toilet and Emily has to save her.  Back then Nolan had to rescue Emily and have a talk with her, also his hair was long in 2002, just as it was in the present day.  here it's short in 2006, just as it is present day.  Really no wigs available??  Jack had long locks in the 2002 flashback and also had Carl.  The infinity symbol was also shown and how Emily had it tattooed onto her wrist, as it was alluded to here again this time by Aiden.

Mr Selfridge Series 1 Episode 8 Review

                                      
This episode opens with another distinguished store owner coming to dinner with Harry (Jeremy Piven) from across the pond; FW Woolworth (Michael Brandon) and he is to opening a new store in Brixton.  Whist his wife, Jennie (Lisa Eichorn) and Rose (Frances O'Connor) share pleasantries, the men engage in some rivalry.  With Woolowrth talking about how he intends to open a store for everyone, be thrifty, whereas Selfridge's is for the wealthy.  Harry should stick to the duchesses.  Harry doesn't believe that having a store like Woolworth on Oxford Street can be good for business.  Rose sees that Jennie is suffering immensely and doesn't look well.  Jennie remarks on how she preferred it when they were "coming up" in the world since they had each other and spent more time together.  Something that must have rung true for Rose too.

Rose speaks with Lady Mae (Katherine Kelly) about Rosalie's (Poppy Lee Friar) coming out and Lady Mae suggests she move onto the next step of meeting eligible bachelors.  She invites her to the next soiree and Harry accompanies her too.  Where surprise, or not so surprisingly, Rose finds Rosalie talking with none other than Roddy Temple (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) alone.  Well it's no secret he'd worm his way back in somehow and Rose doesn't like him being here.  Let alone spending time with Rosalie.

So on Sunday Rosalie feigns illness to get out of going to church and when Rose returns home she finds Rosalie with Roddy and very cosy they looked too.  He claims he was giving Rosalie a drawing lesson but Rose wants him out in no uncertain terms and wants him away from her daughter.  Telling him Harry will be home soon and will have very different ideas about the impropriety in a drawing lesson.  Yeah should have let Harry beat the crap (sorry) out of Roddy too!

Harry sets to work on the store, asking his staff what he can buy for a penny.  Answer being hardly anything.  Thus he comes up with the idea of a mid-season sale.  Anything for a penny, or as cheap as chips, open to all and not just the rich.  Taking on Woolworth's "pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap" ethos.  Especially after Crab (Ron Cook) tells him Mrs Crab (Wendy Nottingham) will be frequenting Woolworth's for her cheap shopping.

Lady Mae gets Victor (Trystan Gravelle) to make ice cream for her guests and he's just realized, I so wanted to say, the penny's just dropped, ha;  she won't be funding his restaurant anytime soon, if ever.  She wants him to leave the back way so her guests don't see him.  Also she thinks he's rushing things and she doesn't like to be rushed.  Agnes (Aisling Loftus) gets closer to Henri (Gregory Fitoussi) and spends the night with him.  He's more into refined things and the opera and she doesn't even know what that is.  She likes the way he can tell a story and admits one day she'd like his job, but that's not why she likes him.  Agnes takes him to Spitalfield's and he notices a display where everything is packed together.  Giving him an idea for a store window display.

Agnes finds Victor waiting for her when she returns home and invites him for coffee.  Him thinking he may still have a chance with her.  He comments on her large bouquet of flowers, probably from Henri but she doesn't tell him that.  He mentions not being able to get the investment since she made him roll over and beg like a dog but he didn't get a biscuit in the end.  he mentions the 'she' word freely now whereas before it was a slip of the tongue and he didn't know the possible investor was a woman.  At the Palm Court, Ellen Love (Zoe Tapper) wants her usual table as she brings Tony (Will Payne) in tow.  But Victor tells her it's Harry's table, however she's insistent.  Harry wants some menus revised so that the ordinary customer can eat there too and when Victor suggests the menu change he's cut off by Perez (Timothy Watson).

Harry has to endure Ellen and Tony who tells her she's starring in his new play, having to make smalltalk with them.  He tells Perez to let him know when they're here next time since he doesn't want to bump into them.  Grove (Tom Goodman-Hill) decides on the assistant for the Accessories department, he opts for Doris (Lauren Crace) which I said, but Miss Mardle (Amanda Abbington) makes him change that to Kitty (Amy Beth Hayes) as Miss Mardle knows her own mind and his, better than he does his own.  This comes after their little 'altercation' when Grove needs more time to decide what he wants to do about their 'relationship.'  He was with his wife for 12 years and doesn't know whether he loved her or not.

Grove gives Doris his wife's clothes for Miss Bunting (Pippa Haywood) and tells her Harry has refused a reference as he's not willing to do that for someone who steals.  Victor comes up with an idea of selling ice cream and candies for a penny throughout the store during the sale, which Gordon (Adam Wilson) thinks is great and so does Harry.  Kitty sells Mrs Crab a hat but we don't now who she is until Crab introduces her to Harry.  She's done an awful lot of shopping and Crab will be amazed.  That he will, especially at his bank balance, ha.

Rose returns home to find Roddy with the children again and when she tells him to leave he attempts to  blackmail to make her come to his studio and then he won't have to come here.  She hates how he's using Rosalie to get to her and calls him "insufferable."  Well he is cos he can't take the hint that she doesn't want anything to do with him.  As he leaves he bumps into Harry on the street but doesn't know who he is.  Oh they should just set Harry onto him and be done with it.  What makes him think Harry or Rose would deem him a suitable match for Rosalie, he's practically a penniless painter! And nothing more than a cad, besides he doesn't want Rosalie but Rose and what better way to get to the mother than through the daughter. Did he think he was fooling anyone by being so obvious.

Woolworth tells Harry he's done wonders with the sale, which is to last for another two weeks, but he's leaving cos Jennie isn't well and he should have seen the signs before.  Family is everything at the end of the day.  He'll be opening a store in Croydon.  That may have opened Harry's eyes and made him rush home to the family, but don't think it will last that long.  Was Miss Mardle really looking out for Doris when she wanted Kitty to have the job saying she won't be so easily taken in, like she was.

Lots of loosening of corsets and purse strings in this episode!  Not to forget Crab getting excited at the prospect of an "automatic nutcracker."

Wonder how long Agnes will have her head up in the clouds as far as Henri is concerned, especially considering she was kind of a rebound for him from his other love.  Also the way Agnes keeps calling him a "fairytale prince" living in a castle.  A Chateau, he responds, but he says it wasn't such a good life.  As for Lady Mae's dress didn't think she would wear that to her 'soiree' and Rose appeared as if she was about to fall out of hers any minute now!
Also wonder if Harry would stock My NCIS Unofficial and Unauthorized Guide to NCIS the TV Show??  Anything for a quick buck you know, ha!!  Seeing as he was "prepared to sell anything from an aeroplane to a cigar."

The Mentalist 5.10 "Panama Red" Review

Lisbon (Robin Tunney) and Cho (Tim Kang) are called to a CS where the DB of a dead climber is found at a gym.  She calls Patrick (Simon Baker) but he already had news of the call as he sits on the makeshift bed in the attic.  He's still enthusiastic about having shaken hands with Red John and so has met him.  Lisbon thinks he's obsessed.  She texts him Jeremy's apartment address and he meets her there; telling her someone's already been over the apartment.  There's a photo of Jeremy and his advisor, Alice Burns (Susan Gibeny) at his graduation.  Plus this time round, Patrick is intrigued by a puzzle box.  Well we all know about Patrick and Puzzles.  There's a hidden safe behind the books which he tells them are in the wrong order and the safe is empty.

Alice speaks with Lisbon and Patrick about how Jeremy was brilliant and gave her a puzzle box too.  She's also dying but has marijuana cigarettes to smoke.  He was working for a Matthew Gold at Westerly Organic, where they grow the stuff.  Matthew (Troy Ruptash) laments about not being able to grow more than 99 plants and how he was once a businessman, well once a businessman, always a businessman.  There's motive right there and he was my number one suspect.  Patrick noticing the seeds he's shown them.  Patrick then chats with Carson, another worker who is high and tells them how Jeremy paid him $8,000 to have his car fixed.  Patrick telling him to use eyedrops and breath mints.

Patrick uses a magnet to open the puzzle box and finds a keycard to JG Allen Tobacco company, letting himself in, he gets caught of course and tells Lisbon he left message on heh voicemail.  Patty asking if he should get down or put his hands up, only from Patty!  Jeremy's boss Francesca (Nicole Bilderbeck) says he was working for her on a project developing seeds, called Turbo Wolf.  Patrick tells them Lisbon's not his boss, but she adds she is.  He finds out that Jeremy's work area was bugged and Jeremy stole the seeds when he found out they were to be put into storage.

The security guard, Elwood (Michael Whaley) is brought in for questioning but doesn't say much.  Patrick finds Jeremy's notebook but can't decipher the code, so he makes up the name of a pharmaceutical guy, Olivier and copies part of the code from his notebook.  He gives a copy to the security guard, one to the boss and one to Matthew.  Thinking one of them will be able to decipher it.

Cho is brought onto task again by Tamsin Wade (Monica Gabriela Curnen) as part of the Rapid Response Unit and they break a counterfeiting ring.  Whilst in pursuit, Cho comes across Summer (Samarie Armstrong) at the raid.  She claims to be a bystander, but Wade wants to press charges. Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) tells Cho he dodged a bullet with her, also cos Summer is pregnant and is engaged but the baby's not his.  She was visiting with Chuck.  When Cho and Rigsby go to arrest him, there's another chase, as usual and Cho gets the brunt of it.  Oh Rigsby you need to speed it up a little.  Chuck (James Jordan) is willing to testify against the ring if he's given a deal which includes Summer being released.  ADA Osvaldo Ardiles David Norono) is on hand to make the deal and he didn't want to prosecute a pregnant woman anyway.  But Wade did and she's annoyed Cho went behind her back and she can't trust him, though she would have shot him down if he had told her what he wanted to do.

Patrick and Lisbon get Rigsby to play Olivier and see who comes a-calling at the hotel room.  Soon enough Francesca tells him she has the seeds and lets Rigsby sample the product, which immediately gets him high.  Matthew also arrives thinking he's got the real seeds.  Patrick thinks they should split the $4 million between them and Francesca refuses.  Matthew wants to and lets slip how he broke into the safe for the seeds, as well as killing Jeremy.  Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) tells him Francesca changed the seeds so he killed Jeremy for nothing.

Patrick hides Lisbon's keys in the puzzle box and then she smashes it with a hammer from her desk, he can't believe she keeps it in her desk and she tells him he doesn't know everything about her.  Hmm wonder what that was about then, you know Lisbon having secrets, just like Patty does.  Also a brief parallel at the beginning when they met with Alice and she tells them that Jeremy could be secretive, ring any bells here, as said.

A fairly routine episode, a little slow in places since there wasn't much on Red John, not that we expected there would be.  At least Summer came and went, so we don't have to put up with her anymore, didn't like her storylines either, she wasn't quite right for Cho.  Didn't think much of Wade either, calling them "ladies" when she walks in.  Her character is a bit too much like that of Det Wallowski, that Monica used to play in Lie To Me.  Infact she seems to have similar character traits here too. Then referring to Lisbon as "your cute boss" to Cho, what's up with that?  Maybe she has designs on Cho, romantically, maybe she's another one who's up on the CBI and its nuances, perhaps even in league with a certain RJ, but that sounds a bit far fetched, even for me to mention.

Patrick: "I know I met Red John now, shook his hand."  Which is just more teasing on his part for viewers, cos not much will come of this anytime soon.  Of course that could mean just about anyone under the moon and also a convenient way for producer and writers to name just about anyone as RJ when they feel like it.  Patrick could just as easily have met him on screen, in TV speak, meaning the meeting didn't really take place until it's actually written in somewhere along the way in a script.  Also his saying "it's a curse some people live by" when Alice tells him Jeremy would be impressed he figured the puzzle.  Reinforcing what we know about Patrick already, he is gifted and is good at what he does. Yet has to suffer those with less intellect than him.  Must be frustrating especially since it sometimes makes him come across as a bit arrogant at times.

 Liked Patty coveting the puzzle box as soon as he found it, "it's mine"  me adding to that line perhaps, "me precious."  Haven't seen him that possessive before.  I would have called Patty cute here, never mind Lisbon, ha.  His hair kept changing almost every scene too.  His was back to his old self here a little his RJ 'obsession' aside and especially the way he sympathized with Alice when he asked her what's wrong with her.

Lisbon: "You only think you know everything about me."  Isn't Patty supposed to know everything, even about Lisbon.  The way she smashed the box showing she doesn't really have time for his 'games' and if she wants to, she will take the lead and be his boss.  Though Patty was gobsmacked and a little heartbroken I guess that she didn't ask him how to open it, or indeed how he did manage to open it.  In that respect, Alice was more interested in than Lisbon.

Rigsby hungry again and wanting the cheese, as does Patrick when he finds his con is getting interesting!  Some funny moments from Simon and Owain here showing us just why even Red John aside, this show is so riveting.  Even if Poor Van Pelt is left to interview the suspect after arrest and always break the bad news to them of how they needn't have bothered committing the crime, or it was futile.

CSI 11.4 "Sqweegel" Review

                                          
Everyone's heard of the Anthony Zuiker 'Digi-Novel' Level 26: Dark Origins and this is an episode which takes a character from that, Sqweegel, and is incorporated in a CSI episode. Very dark and creepy too.

The CSIs are called to investigate the brutal attack of Margot Wilton (Ann-Margret) in her own home by a masked intruder.  Nick (George Eads) runs into Ryan Fink (Mitchell Fink)  whom he saw on TV and calls him a "real hero" for saving children from a fire.  Ray (Laurence Fishburne) comments on the photos on her wall being cut up and the scrapings are found on the floor.   Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) notices the number of awards she's received.   An award on the wall has also been turned upside down.   Ray: "...up to us to turn it right side up."  The case that is.   Nick finds the glass on the French doors in the kitchen have been cut through.   Ray notices blood on the walls, the bed and the headboard, as well as the cast off on the walls, indicating the attacker was on top of her.   He also spots the trail of blood on the floor, the prints being unusual as they go from footprint, handprint, handprint, footprint.

Outside, Greg (Eric Szmanda) takes some scrapings on the window ledge for analysis.   Nick tells him he's found the entry and exit, so too has Greg.   All the other windows were varnished shut, and there's a dust void on the sill, showing he's been through the window many times.   So they're looking for someone small.   Or says Nick, a "leprechaun."

Nick has more questions than answers now and Ray wonders if Margot is "lucky to be alive, or left alive by design." Since all the messages he's left behind, show the attack was personal.   There weren't any fingerprints so Nick posits they need to examine the evidence he didn't leave behind.

Margot describes her attacker as being 'slippery', wearing gloves and African American.   She recalls his eyes and he had braces on his teeth.   Ray removes her stitches so he can take photos of the cuts sustained during the attack.   Her son died.   She asks why the 'cute resident' stitched her up at all.   Ray: "I'm not cute?"  Tells him to 'gotta hell'.   For all her philanthropy, she was a nasty piece of work, in the sense that even though her backstory is sad and you can sympathize with her, she appears abrupt.   She would've preferred cute Greggie to have taken photos instead!

Catherine still checks the bedroom for prints and Greg remarks his Papa Olaf would say, "when the going gets rough, keep your chin up."  Greg's so into looking up isn't he, especially since he did the same thing in the first episode of this season when looking for the remote controlled plane.   Also looking up is clearly something these people don't do.   He finds the attic, but Catherine tells him "I don't do attics - I'm dirty enough."  Well, she did in Nick's stalker episode from season 2, entitled, Stalker.  She joined Gil (William Petersen) in the attic then.   I thought of this same episode here and then Catherine said it later.   Great minds think alike! Ha.   Greg finds a hole in the ceiling, her attacker was watching her and calls him a 'kinky rat' who can use a lipstick camera, and finds mouldy orange peels in one of the drawers.   He was living up there.   Nick walks in with Margot's mail, which the attacker had been reading and Catherine states: "You and Margot have something in common - stalker."

Nick: "That was a long time ago."  He was very dismissive in tone about her remark, so he's clearly over that incident in his life and has put it behind him, otherwise he didn't want to bring that up again.   I think he just didn't want to remember it, as it was a "traumatic memory" for him, to swipe Ray's phrase.  Either way, it's good to see that he doesn't like to dwell on the past and particularly, bad things like that, since it would put him off concentrating on this case.

Nick says they were sleeping together; he would lay under her bed.   We get Ray's new concept: 'the hourglass of evidence'.   In the absence of evidence they must turn over the hourglass.   Thus comments Greg, "the absence of evidence is evidence."   They have to analyze everything they've 'found' and fill the bottom of the hourglass, eventually leading to the "truth."  The evidence must be examined again.

Hodges (Wallace Langham) notices the attacker's void on the carpet from under Margot's bed smells like urine.   Nick sniffs  and says it's not urine.   Hodges telling him that Grissom would've tasted that.   EEww.   But he's not Grissom.   Lots of mentions of Gil lately.   Just incase he may be forgotten, which isn't very probable.   Nick tells him if it's sweat then they can get epithelials from it.   After Hodge's analysis he finds the attacker has a fetish.   The amylase stain was sweat with trace amounts found in latex fetish spray; slide on latex suits with a zipper on the back.   Which made him sweat.   Hodges: "time to get kinky."  Just in time for Catherine to see his little dance.

Greg brought up the kinky rat phrase and next thing you know, Nick and Catherine visit a sex store.   Catherine making particular reference to the Doberman mask being real.   She tells Nick that all sex crimes begin with fantasy and she's been here purely in a professional capacity only.   Nick tells her he had to ask and if she's okay.   Catherine replies by asking Nick if he's okay.   Hey this scene reminded me of the episodes of CSI:NY, whenever Flack (Eddie Cahill) and Stella (Melina Karakanades) were on a sex case, or a new-found fad craze, they'd come up with such comments and steely looks and Stella would always be one step ahead, knowing all about it.   The store owner helps Catherine out on her cases and he recalls selling the spray 6 months ago, with some custom-made head-to-toe latex suits.   He has photos from which can only be glimpsed the one brown eye and one blue eye of the attacker.   Nick repeats here what Hodges said about him sweating because of his zipper.   The man left his name as "Ian Moone."  The obvious question to ask is why he'd leave his name behind if he hasn't left anything else.

This Ray deciphers as an anagram, to read "I am no one."  A woman is attacked in the carwash with her daughter in the backseat., as she makes a call.   This was the reason she was murdered.   Catherine and Greg find traces of the woman's blood in the car and Greg discovers he was hiding in the boot (trunk) where the spare tyre was kept.   Hey I said he was hiding in the car already.   He left behind an 'A' on the windshield of the car in blood.   Catherine shouts "a 425a: suspect on the premises" - which she was a little slow off the mark with.

Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) asks Alise (Emily Skinner) what happened and relays the questions as if he's talking with her doll.   She tells him "Sqweegel."  Her husband, Jason Jones, (David Julian Hirsh) tells Brass his wife, Carrie (Laurie Fortier) was appointed to the Family Values Committee and was another "hero."  David (David Berman) finds old wounds on her body.   Jason speaks of a break-in they had and she was cut.   Doc Robbins (Robert David Hall) examines her as being cut twice.   David identifies the weapon as box cutters or a straight razor.   She had injuries to her neck and a severed carotid artery.

Ray stipulates she had identical wounds, all similar in length so it has to be the same attacker.   Under Carrie's bed they find voids indicating the attacker was also here.   Brass lets them know about the "Sqweegel" comment which he assumes was the noise from the squeegee on the window, but if Alise had her headphones on, how did she hear the sound.   Greg's traumatic image being 'deja vu'.  The same Mo.   They look up to find a hole in the ceiling.   oh come on, who cannot see that gaping hole in their ceiling, either that or they don't clean very often!   Nick finds a DVD in the bed.   This contains video of her having an affair with another man, which explains the 'A' on the windshield, Ray describes as a 'scarlet letter'.   Jason remembers the attacker telling her, "I know, confess."  Brass thinks she was hiding her dirty little secret and was given a chance to repent, as was Margot.   Ray tells her the same line, but she insists on going home.

Also figured out she killed her son, even if she considered it a mercy killing and he asked her to end his suffering.   Margot finds fresh orange peel in the drawer, whilst searching for her letters.   Nick's called out to an abandoned car belonging to Ryan.   He finds blood inside.   The attacker chases Margot.   The slimy slithering was creepy.     She confesses to him and then shoots him but he gets away, having replaced her gun with blanks.   Greg takes her letters and steams them open.   Ray finds Ryan's DB under her bed, dressed in a latex suit.  Ryan Fink has the same scars.

Brass hears on the tipline how Ryan started fires, just to save the children from them.   Ray asks: "the biggest secret of all, who is Ian Moone?"
Who replies, "I am no one..."

The first CSI case where the killer leaves behind no evidence - other than some sweat on a zipper - which isn't much to go on, presenting the team with a dilemma.   Also why would he reveal his different coloured eyes in a photo, when he's hidden/masked everything else about him.   To throw them off track, provide them with false evidence of his true description.

For fans of the Digi-novel, or for those who haven't read it yet, you can still read it and watch this episode without there being any dangers of spoilers.

Personally I liked the allusion Catherine made to Nick's Stalker episode, not only to keep up the continuity for older viewers, but to alert the more newer viewers to such plots.   Making sure some of CSI's best episodes aren't forgotten and also how some cases still have an impact on the CSI's personal lives; even though they don't like to admit it.

Sara was conspicuously absent this episode, just like Brass was last time.

666 Park Avenue 1.1 "Pilot" Review

                                                           
From the outset people like me need to suspend any notions of shows/films they have watched before to look at this show with fresh eyes, for me that would almost entirely be Supernatural. Yeah okay, out with the moans and groans! The first scene opened with the Doran's at a concert watching a violin player, when said violin player arrives home it's clear he's made some sort of a deal since Gavin calls him and tells him his ten years are up, with him begging for another year.  Instantly the thought that occurred to me was making deals and selling one's soul are the realm of Supernatural.  Especially the early seasons.  You see the crossroads demons, if they feel generous will give you ten years in any deal you make, which is a signed and sealed contract.  After which it's collection time and collection's a bitch, or in this case hell hounds.  This violin player gets dragged back into the Drake though a hole in the door and is never heard of again.  being sent to warmer climes.

You see Gavin Doran (Terry O'Quinn) owner of the Drake and his wife Olivia (Vanessa Williams) are demons you might say, okay he's the devil it appears; who occupy the penthouse of the Drake, that being on the 13th floor and obviously the number 999 Park Avenue is really an inverted 666. The devil's playground you might say.  Cue naive couple, except they're not married Jane Van Veen (Rachael Taylor) and Henry Martin (Dave Annable).  She's an architect and he's a lawyer working for the mayor which is convenient for Gavin as he's into buying and selling ad not just property, but also souls and making deals aren't the usual sense of the word to you and me.  Their plan is to get Henry.  Thus I had to wonder what sort of a contract Jane and Henry signed when they were hired as resident managers.  Not being able to resist the lavishness and decadence of the apartment they were provided with.

At first Gavin rejects Jane giving him any input on the building and what should be changed but later on after they've been to the concert themselves and Olivia has bought an expensive red dress for Jane, Gavin is more than willing to let Jane look over the plans to help him renovate the Drake keeping as many original features as possible.

The couple also meet Brian (Robert Buckley) a struggling playwright who spends his time playing voyeur watching the woman across the street, whom his wife, Louise (Mercedes Masohn) hires as an assistant and then conveniently gets her head struck in between the lift doors and ends up in hospital.  Also there's John Barlow (James Waterston) who Jane meets when his hand is dripping with blood.  He's just killed a judge for Gavin.  John now gets Mary back.  Half expecting her to return as a zombie which she probably was, but she's not long for this world, unless John kills another vic, this time the man whose property Gavin is after.  Oh hold on, John and Mary really?  As in John and Mary Winchester from Supernatural, no, they couldn't find any alternative first names!

SO anyway at the concert Jane feels Gavin trying to kiss the back of her neck and Henry puts this down to her drinking.  Also Jane's found a dragon mosaic which was part of a fraternity.  That night she sees Mary jump off the building telling her to leave here.  She thinks she dreamed it but when we see her dirty feet we know it really happened.  There's also Nona (Samantha Logan) a thief who even warns Jane about little things going missing, you see she's a clairvoyant and remarks on how beautiful Jane's necklace is, which she steals.  Olivia also remarked on the necklace.  Anyway Nona has a vision of Jane running in her red dress, probably in 'hot' pursuit by Gavin.  That's another aspect that's meant to draw us back in for the next ep.

Also John can't come through with killing another vic so he's sucked through the wallpaper, so much for wanting his wife back, really do these people think they will get what they want.  Even if it's just on TV. So gullible.  Wonder if Brian will ever get past tying the title, "Disappearing Ink" before he disappears along with the show.  Oops, sorry it already has.

The show based on the novels of Gabriella Pierce, aims to lure viewers in with the thrill of the supernatural and the occult and its lavish setting, with this down on their luck couple who just might not be able to resist the lure of hitting it rich and striking a deal or two of their own.  Though the show has been cancelled by ABC in the US, there are still two episodes to air.  As for me, well I'll have to reserve judgement until another few eps since for me there was a strong sense of deja vu, but then again, that's just me!

Rachael Taylor was in shortlived Charlie's Angels remake and Dave Annable was in Brothers and Sisters.

The Vampire Diaries 4.10 "After School Special" Review

                                                                                
School's out or in whichever way you want to look at it as the residents and students of Mystic Falls say farewell to their beloved mayor Carol Lockwood.  The sheriff (Marguerite MacIntyre) gives a rousing farewell and then has a meeting with the new interim mayor, Rudy (Rick Worthy) who as it happens turns out to be the Alpha vampire from Supernatural, oh wait he's Bonnie's (Kat Graham) father here.  He accepted the job after six people turned it down and she lets him into how Carol really died and the general goings on in the town.  Which being Bonnie's dad shouldn't be news to him.  He tells Bonnie he's there to protect her and she shouldn't need to protect the town using her 'gifts.'

Rebekah (Claire Holt) gets hold of Elena (Nina Dobrev) Caroline (Candace Accola) and Stefan (Paul Wesley) and compels them to reveal their feelings.  She gets Elena to admit sire bond aside she's in love with Damon (Ian Somerhalder) ho hum, not really news to us but mainly for newcomers or those with short attention spans and memories, ha.  Rebekah wants Stefan to suffer the pain she suffered for 900 years with a song in her heart, and relishes how Stefan has a dagger through his heart now and the pain he feels at her rejection.  The same thing she felt when Klaus (Joseph Morgan) compelled her to forget Stefan.  She offers  to compel him to forget Elena but then refuses.  Seeing as she's Klaus's sister through and through of course she wouldn't oblige.

She wants info on the cure and they tell her about Shane (David Alpay) who gives Bonnie a witch's necklace, it's real bone.  He's also been deceiving Bonnie when he tells her 'expressionism' has nothing to do with black magic since Stefan tells Rebekah what that is.  Rebekah enlists Kol's (Nathanial Buzolic) help to torture Shane into revealing where the cure is and Bonnie uses a protection spell to save him, which gets misfired and ends up with April (Grace Phipps) feeling everything that he does physically at least.  Stefan has to save April who then blabs to the sheriff and new mayor about how her father didn't kill all those people but was made to do it by Shane.  Funny Bonnie not recognizing Kol straigtaway when he passes her at Shane's.
Rebekah uses Kol to torture Shane for the info on the cure and he tells them about the immortal Silas and how he wants to bring them into the world leading Kol to impale him.

Rebekah meanwhile plays her game of truth or dare after compelling Stefan, Elena and Caroline and Elena tells Stefan she loves Damon, sire bond or not.  That she loves Stefan but isn't in love with him, well if Stefan didn't have a puppy dog look on his face!  She also refers to him as a broken toy and Damon makes her feel alive.  Bet many were calling Elena many names right about now, especially 'bee-ach' for one!  So what's so special about Elena anyway, no really?  Rebekah has also roped, okay compelled Tyler (Michael Trevino) into coming to save Caroline and then compels him to turn so he will kill them, not that she wants them dead.

Poor Tyler had it bad this episode finally breaking down over his mother's death and blaming himself for not being able to save her and ending up in the same hall where the memorial was held at school.  Damon helps Jeremy (Steven R McQueen) at boy's camp and keeps him and Matt (Zach Roerig) from pizza, well someone had to stop them eating too much junk food, until Klaus arrived wanting to speed the process up of Jeremy hunting vampires.  Damon gets to shot Klaus in revenge for Carol, but not like that hurt him.

Elena running after Stefan as if he wants to hear anything she has to say with her 'we need to talk' just to ease her conscience.  What could she possibly say that would make him feel better.  As if admitting she's in love with Damon wasn't the final nail in the coffin.  Rebekah tormenting Stefan with her offer to compel him to forget everything about Elena which he falls for but she refuses so he can feel the same pain she felt for 900 years.  Particularly after Klaus compelled heh to forget Stefan.  Stefan and Rebekah forge alliances since Stefan tells her Damon has Jeremy and Klaus, kind of, Klaus has the sword, Shane has Bonnie and they have nothing.  Rebekah wants the cure to use on Klaus to watch him become mortal.

Klaus meanwhile has fresh prey waiting for Jeremy to hunt at the bar and Elena tells Damon Stefan knows about them, yet the Salvatore hate continues once more with Stefan hating Damon again, just after they 'found' themselves again a few episodes ago.

Good to see Rebekah having fun for a change  with her game, well she hasn't had any in a long time.  Damon wants to find the cure for Elena, thought Stefan wanted that and Damon wants Elena to drive to him, huh so much for brotherly love.  Turns out Damon doesn't want Klaus to find another way of speeding up the mapping process on Jeremy's body but instead agrees with Klaus, yeah only cos of Elena.

April: "It's time the entire town started telling the truth" yeah like that'll happen.

Revenge 2.7 "Penance" Review

                                       
Emily: "penance is a sacrifice.  A voluntary punishment to show remorse for a sin.  The more grievous the sin, the greater the self- inflicted suffering.  For some, the ultimate penance is death.  But for others it is simply a means to an end."

Lots happening this episode beginning with Kara (Jennifer Jason Leigh) sneaking up on Victoria (Madeleine Stowe) or rather scaring her in the process, to tell her she's leaving and needs a credit card, obviously Victoria volunteers thinking the sooner she's out of her hair the better.  Mason (Roger Bart) confronts Emily (Emily Vancamp) with the revelation that she and Amanda (Margarita Levieva) were at juvvie together, is that all, would have thought it would have been the revelation everyone was talking about, that Emily is really Amanda.  He thinks she and Amanda were lovers.  So he will expose everything in his next book which will make the New York best seller list as did his first one.  Emily threatens him with a libel suit when that happens, but he doesn't give up there.

Aiden (Barry Sloane) plans a meeting with Daniel (Josh Bowman) and will give him the ammo necessary to prove David Clarke had a large share holding in NolCorp and provided finance for it, thus Grayson Global is entitled to a large chunk of the company and more importantly profits.  Daniel wants to use this to take over Grayson Global with a no confidence vote in Conrad (Henry Czerny).  The plan is skank Ashley (Ashley Madekwe) will ensure Conrad is held up at the meeting with investors whilst Daniel will reveal his plan to the other investors, including Helen Crowley (Wendy Crewson) from the Initiative.  Little does Daniel know who she is.  Victoria listens to Daniel's plan and tries to tell Conrad, but Kara holds them up in their room.  She demands questions and answers about David and how they framed him.  Conrad attempts to stall until Victoria can get her gun, taking the blame for everything, cos David was stealing his wife and he wanted him to hurt as much as he did.  Think Victoria was a little shocked at that.  Too late the gun's not there.

Kara takes them into their dressing room and Victoria tells her Gordon killed David as she has the other half of the photo to prove it.  Yes that photo that everyone has seen, well Emily at least and found its way into Victoria's possession.  Kara makes them wear blindfolds and get down on their knees.  Victoria and Conrad manage to hold hands in what they believe is their final moment.  So how did Kara arrive here...

Well Mason was to blame for that and partly Emily too, as he contacts Amanda for the truth on Emily.  She can't talk to him at the bar but she will at his house as Amanda plans to get rid of him once and for all, you know, using her old tyre iron ploy as weapon.  Before that she confronts Emily about Mason and how she hasn't told her anything about him.  She tells Amanda to cancel lunch with him and to threaten a restraining order if he doesn't oblige.  Emily arrives in the nick and wants Amanda to go home and think of how lucky is she is with what she has.

Daniel tries o get info from Kara about David and his investments before she leaves but she tells him he was very secretive and hid things so there might be something.  Emily arrives with a present for Victoria and she has it placed with the rest of the unopened gifts.  Wonder if Emily bought her an empty box just as she did when Emily was engaged to Daniel.

We meet up with Ryan's (JR Bourne) brother Nate (Michael Trucco) this episode and how they're trying to get all the ships and other businesses in the area, er, out of business cos they're nasty people, including Jack's  (Nick Wechsler) father.  But Ryan tries to tell him that Jack and Declan are good.  Nate meets Jack.  Oh no Declan and Charlotte missing this episode and I didn't even notice, maybe they ran off together, ha!

Aiden needs Nolan's (Gabriel Mann) help since he wants to help Emily, saying he wronged her and wants to make it right, when Nolan asks him why he's here, considering he took away his best friend.  That's aiden's penance.  Aiden reminds him of how forensic accountants will be able to locate the extent of the shareholding, including that of Emily's.  So Nolan gives him David's cheque for NolCorp so Daniel can use it to take over Grayson Global.

Funny moment when Victoria finds Conrad on the beach, thinking he was going to end it all, did that last episode too.  He's not going to do that since there are enough people gunning for him.  Victoria suggests they play along with the Initiative for now.  Amanda tells Mason that Emily is stalking her and is obsessed with her since her first day inside and is about to hit him with a tyre iron when Emily stops her.  Finally admitting she's the real Amanda Clark and needs his help.  Suppose it was only fitting that Emily should reveal her own real identity instead of Mason or anyone else doing it for her.  Mason calls Kara and whilst he meets with her to give her Gordon's pocketwatch, Nolan plants evidence at Mason's implicating him in Gordon's murder and conspiring to frame Conrad.  Well that's one way to skin a writer.

Emily gets Aiden to rescue Conrad and Victoria by using chloroform on Kara and taking her out.  She's allowed to leave and her message for Amanda, she "tried to be a good mother."  Well at least Emily got to heat that, kind of meant  for her ears only.  Conrad and Victoria think the Initiative have more uses for them which is why they probably saved them from Kara since she's disappeared.

Nolan asks Padma (Dilshad Vadsaria) if she still wants him if tomorrow everything changes and he's no longer who he is.  Wish they'd get on with that storyline cos I for one would like to see the back of her!  Jack also tells Emily he's proposed to Amanda and Emily gets to use Mason by getting him to confess to Gordon's murder and that she holds the real evidence for getting him out of prison, i.e her confession.  Which she will do when she's ready to.  Also he can now write his second book about her and David.

Emily: "To properly do penance, one must express contrition for one's sins and perform acts to repair the damage caused by those transgressions.  It is only when these acts are complete that the slate can truly be wiped clean.  And amnesty gives way to a new beginning."  Emily can resist Aiden no longer as they passionately kiss, surprised no one was watching them from the famous balcony!

Seems Emily's plans get side tracked quite a bit in her quest for revenge, whereas she was firmly of the belief that the Graysons were her true enemies and the ones she had to bring down, lately she hasn't really been concerned with doing just that.  Here she even says that Conrad isn't her endgame and the one she wants to bring down.  Other people keep getting in her way and she always finds she must come up with some other plans to salvage what she can of a bad situation, or to save someone and then leave her schemes for another day.  Here she enlists Nolan once again to help and he will do anything for his real family as he puts it, which doesn't include leaving Padma though, he's still enamoured of her for some reason.  Well I'm still waiting for the ultimate betrayal from her!  Oh loved Nolan's matching blue shoes!  Matching his jacket that is!

Mr Selfridge Series 1 Episode 7 Review

                                        
Today marked the occasion of the visit of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (John Sessions) a bit of a coup and especially since he holds a seance with his friend and medium, Mr Crenell (Todd Boyce).  Not something to go down well in those times.  Yet as we know Harry's (Jeremy Piven) game for anything particularly if it beings in sales, or rather punters, I like saying that for some reason. Though it's actually held for the staff.

Rose (Frances O'Connor) chases after Harry as he opens the lights in the house and puts the clocks five minutes forward to give them more time.  She thinks he's crazy and she's crazy too cos of him.  He's sorry for putting them through all that pain and he promises he'll always be there for them.  Then invites her to lunch with Conan Doyle and she can get her books signed.

Agnes (Aisling Loftus) beautifies herself in the mirror before leaving for work and tears a piece off her petticoat to use as a ribbon for her hat.  George (Calum Callaghan) comments she'll make someone a good wife, but she's not ready for that just yet.  She assures George he'll find someone too.  The store is abuzz as usual and Harry greets hi staff, not out of the lift this time, but from the balcony.  checking the counter glass for dirt, as Miss Mardle (Amanda Abbington) asked Doris (Lauren Crace) to clean properly not five minutes before.

Frank (Samuel West) is happy to see Harry return and asks Harry for a quote, "life must go on."  Well didn't need a quote there then.  Frank needs a new pencil and asks Kitty (Amy Beth Hayes) for some samples, but not before there's flirting to be had.  Her hair is natural strawberry blonde and Kitty is taken with him.  He buys the pencils and before you know it, she gets a note, "sweets for a sweetheart" and a box of humbugs.  Kitty thinks she has a secret admirer and believes it could be Frank, with Doris jumping the gun and calling her Mrs Frank Edwards.  Obviously it's not Frank, but George, well the way he looked at her outside the teashop was a giveaway.

Irene (Anna Madeley) asks Harry for Agnes in her fashion department and she seems to be the apple of everyone's eye.  Though Henri (Gregory Fitoussi) seems to be a little cold towards her, especially when she tells him news of her promotion, but he's already heard.  Miss Mardle seemed reluctant to let Agnes leave but she's eager to go.   Kitty and Doris see Miss Bunting (Pippa Haywood) at the teashop and Doris feels sorry for her as she can't find work without a reference.  Doris speaks with her but Kitty chooses to ignore her, all right and proper, she doesn't associate with common riff raff.  Doris gives her a coin to help her buy some buns.  Her mother has passed now.

Doris later asks Grove (tom Goodman-Hill) if he will give Miss Bunting a reference since it would be something she'd ask for her own mother. Grove will have to speak with Harry and gives her a farthing for her to tide her over and for her to return same time next week.  Grove comments Kitty is "soft of heart."  In comparison to Miss Mardle whom he was rather standoffish towards, especially when she tells him she gave him her child bearing years and waited for him, and waited...even at the seance when a woman with the initial 'H' (Hettie) told him to marry again and thanked him for looking after her.  Grove finds it too much and walks off.  Seems he was only interested in Miss Mardle as long as his wife was alive and he didn't have to offer her any sort of commitment, but it was fine for him to use heh like that! Just stringing her along, seemed that way.

The seance also reveals a man, very hostile who Crenell doesn't allow to speak or convey his hostile message, especially since it's meant to be Harry's father.  Conveniently it had to be him, since Harry's been having all those nightmares, made worse after his accident.  Harry refuses  a private seance with him since it's the past and he's moved on.   He's more worried about his mother, Lois (Kika Markham) and especially after the conversation she had with Rose, he doesn't know anything about, of how Harry acts reckless and Rose thinks he may be born that way.   Or she can think like Rose and imagine they made him that way.   They also prepare Rosalie's (Poppy Lee Friar) dress for her coming out which she will attend with Lady Mae (Katherine Kelly) and without her parents.  So naturally she's nervous.  Who wouldn't be with Lady Mae around, who keeps on with her affair with Victor (Trystan Gravelle) who didn't seem to be at work, nor did he attend the seance.

Musker (Tim Woodward) talks to Harry about not being so eager to float the stock and issue shares so suddenly and the bank suggests a few weeks for this, Harry prefers a day.  He instructs Crabb (Ron Cook) to bring the bankers to the store for a meeting, which he actually manages to do.  But Musker also has Lady Mae up his sleeve, who puts in a good word for Harry and how he's so progressive.  Not to mention the way he held the seance too, so very daring.  As well as the reception of Conan Doyle.  With Sherlock Holmes being bounded around just for good measure and for anyone who doesn't know who Conan Doyle is. Thus the bankers arrange a meeting with Harry for the Monday.  Lady Mae also cautions him about the public floating of shares since they also mean publicity for his family.

Kitty isn't too pleased when she finds out it's George who's been sending heh the sweets and she agrees to tea with him anyway, seeing as she likes cats.  Oh not another cat comment, seem to recall she made one about Agnes in the first part and Agnes replied she had a cat named Kitty.  Agnes meanwhile gets flustered over ol' Henri and asks him for help with dressing the mannequin for the store window.  Taking a chance and kissing him in the process, yeah we know it was just an excuse asking him for help, just to check as she wasn't sure if she kissed him right.

Harry tells Lois he knows about his father and how he left them, he wasn't really a war hero and understands why she lied to him. To not go through the pain she did. But he promises he won't do that and doesn't want to be like him. Well, he may not leave the family for another woman, but that didn't stop him from having his fun and dalliances, affairs of the heart.  Speaking of, no Ellen Love this episode, a relief, ha.

Not much happened this episode but seemed to be more of a way to make Harry get back into the stride of things and thinking to the future, which is what he always does.  Kind of a way to tie up some loose ends in
that his brush with death was put aside and he's ready and eager to move on.  Think one of the best lines coming from him was when he said he'll leave his legacy and the store will continue on even without him.  Which rings true as we know.  "What we leave behind is more important than ourselves."

Oh and Roddy's Paris show is a success as Lois tells her Rose's portrait will be worth quite a few dollars.  Rose is glad she made the right choice then. Right choice in not going with him, but he's not gone for good and next episode will rear his ugly head again, to cause more trouble.

Oh and there's that lift scene again with Harry coming out to meet the bankers, though it wasn't that prominent as in the past, see more serious business, and which proves successful for him.  Those exits from the lift usually do!  Seems we didn't get much of a mystery with Conan Doyle around after all, though Rose was acting all shy over not getting the book signed in her own name.  He refers to her as 'Rosa' and not Rose, wonder if that was relevant, or just a slip of the tongue.  Though Conan Doyle didn't turn to spiritualism until the death of his wife Louisa and his son in World War One and his brother.  Here he's already portrayed as being into the spirit world, most probably due to Louisa dying in 1906.

Simon Baker Receives Star on Walk of Fame

                                                    
Simon Baker, 43 year old Aussie actor and star of The Mentalist today received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  Wowing fans and critics in how soon he received this.  Some actors have to wait practically a lifetime for this honour, but it's nice to see lovable and generous Simon, received his so early on in life.  Just goes to show what a good show and how an Aussie can make it big in the US.  It was star number 2,490.  The ceremony was held outside of Beso, the restaurant owned by Eva Longoria.

Simon was accompanied by his wife, Rebecca Rigg and their three children, Harry Friday, Claude Blue and Stella Breeze.  As well as his co-star Robin Tunney, The Mentalist creator Bruno Heller and Naomi Watts.  This was a bit of a surprise for many fans and followed hot on the trail of the UK release of his most recent movie I Give It A Year.

How fitting he received this star today of all day's, showing the love, appreciation and admiration Simon so rightly deserves.  Congrats Simon!