TV Review: PERSON OF INTEREST - C.O.D 2.9

My initial reaction to “C.O.D” was that its a lot better than the previous offering from Person of Interest “Til Death”, having time to reflect on the episode and do some research I haven’t changed my mind. I still think this was a better offering but I think at the same time a lot of what happened here was very forgetful. I found myself reading reviews as I always do, only this time I was thinking “what are they talking about?”, “I don’t remember that”, “or that person”. Mind you coming to write the review two days after watching it probably doesn’t help, as during that time I’ve also watched Dexter and Homeland already.

I still think this was a good episode, the weekly procedural may have been a bit of a bore but what was going on in the background was probably more important to the show. We thought at the end of the first season that we had seen the last of HR, but it seems that Simmons is eager to have them set up once again. This week he was looking for the back-up of Elias in their corrupt business venture, but he doesn’t seem interested in that right now. It’s great to see how they still use Elias in the show, although he is in prison he has featured and done something important regarding the plot in at least three episodes that I can think of. HR, of course are going to prove a problem for Fusco, the dirty cop turned clean is still a little dirty, he desperately wants to change his ways but is ultimately paying the price for things he has done in the past, for want of better words Simmons has him by the short and curley’s .

The weekly procedural side of things this week focused on a taxi driver from Cuba who wanted to bring his family into the country. An Estonian gang were prepared to do that for a certain sum of money, however when he come to drop it off wouldn’t you know? The price has gone up. Not only did he have that to contend with but someone just went and left a secretive laptop in his cab, and now the people who are after it want him dead. Step up Mr Reese for some kick ass scenes, although at the time of writing this I don’t remember them all particularly that well, but what I do remember was that Reese dealt out a healthy dose of justice as per usual.

Ok, I have left this way to long to write the review of C.O.D, I will be watching tonight's episode later and will be sure to let you know in more detail how we get on. I really have nothing more to say on this episode, the more I read the more I'm reminded that an awful lot went on, problem is non of it was all that memorable. Here's hoping this weeks offering has a lot more to offer.

TV Review: DEXTER - Do You See What I See? 7.11

As you know I have been missing Ray Stevenson’s Issak Sirko from Dexter, last week just wasn’t the same in what has been a brilliant season so far. Turns out, we were all too quick to judge because in “Do You See What I See?” I think Dexter went about delivering us with one of its best episodes this season. I am genuinely sitting with bated breath to see what is going to happened in next week’s finale “Surprise Motherf**ker”. The seasons big bad seemed so obvious at the beginning of season 7 but now it looks like Hannah McKay (Yvonne Strahovski) will take that role as this week Dexter had her busted for the murder of Sal Price. Many think that producers have also given us a nod that a big character will be killed off by the end of this season, we know Batista will be leaving, but how?

I thought a little way into this episode that maybe the review I read last week could be right, would they kill off Debra? I suppose they still could but now that Hannah McKay is behind bars, any immediate threat to her is already quashed. Deb will be gunning for La Guerta in the season finale that’s for sure, she has promised Dexter that Harrison will not grow up without a father, that could really put her in the firing line to be either shot or arrested, she is an accessory to murder remember? Debra has also helped Dexter plant all of the evidence in the boat house to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Sgt James Doakes was the Bay Harbour Butcher.

What is going to be interested going into the season finale is seeing whether or not Hannah will keep quiet about Dexter, other than Debra she is the only one who knows who he really is. It was brilliant the way they started the episode, Dexter 15 years on living happily ever after with Hannah, whilst a teenage Harrison stepped out for Basketball practice. Dexter was allowing himself to imagine the future for the first time, a future which included he and Hannah being “normal”, a thought that Dexter has never allowed to enter his head, even when he was with Rita. I so wanted to believe that Hannah was not responsible for spiking Deb’s drink, and I still think that there will be a twist to come in the finale regarding that. Maybe Hannah didn’t do it, what do you think? As much as I didn’t want to believe she done it, I still couldn’t believe it when Dexter turned her in to police, has he gone mad? The one woman who could ruin him with what she knows, and also the one who is not afraid to do anyone over in order to protect herself, I just can’t wait to see how this pans out next week.

What has been bubbling brilliantly all season long is La Guerta’s investigation into the Bay Harbour Butcher, wanting to prove that her good friend Sgt Doakes was innocent. She brought ex Captain Matthews in on the investigation and she was very quickly amassing some very good circumstantial evidence against Dexter Morgan. Matthews sort of warned Dexter about her “crazy” theory, but I can’t help but think that Matthews has his own hidden agenda in all of this, one which could prove a massive turning point in the season finale. La Guerta pulled off a master cross over during this episode, she needed to prove once and for all that her suspicions about Dexter are true. The best way to do that, get Hector Estrada released from prison, on what Dexter thinks is the justice system being too soft once again. La Guerta new that Dexter would want him dead and she got her wish, almost catching Dexter in the act and being one of the very few people to see his kill room. Of course she didn’t catch him, but it pretty much goes to prove that her theory is correct.

There are certainly some nail biting moments to come in what looks like it will be one of the best Dexter season finales yet. Will Doakes be back? Will Dexter get arrested? Well, for Doakes to have survived that blast in the cabin would be something of a miracle and for Dexter to be arrested could prove a bit of a boring season 8. I can’t help but think that little sneak peak at the finale may just be Dexter imagining how things could go, but of course I could and probably will be wrong, to see Doakes back would be amazing, the guy is still a legend after all.

Amongst everything that was brilliant with this episode it was still good to see a little light hearted entertainment, Masuka dressed as an Elf, anyone?? He was doing the rounds in the office seeing who would join in secret Santa, a cool reminder that Miami Metro are not really that busy these days with no season serial killer to catch, as La Guerta is the only one looking into the Bay Harbour Butcher case. And what was with all of the Christmas decorations? Dexter always enjoys it’s season finale in December but I can’t remember them ever having so much to do with Christmas in the show.

A brilliant episode paving the way for a brilliant season finale which I’m sure will see Dexter collecting some of those fake passports and foreign currency before hitting the road, on the run from Miami Metro. What did you think of “Do You See What I See?”? One of the best episodes yet? Your Comments are welcome as always.

TV Review: PERSON OF INTEREST - Til Death 2.8

I have to apologise here first off, Person of Interest, or rather IMDB duped me this week, I got hold of the latest Person of Interest (2.9 C.O.D) and was ready to go ahead and watch it last night thinking Thursday gone was it’s first return to CBS since episode 7 “Critical”, at least that’s what IMDB told me. I thought the numbers looked a bit off so I checked and yeah, I missed one, this one in fact, turns out it was on last week. Never mind I’m back on schedule now and it’s a bonus for you, as you will get two Person of Interest reviews this weeks starting with “Til Death”.

I don’t know whether it’s the fact I have had a two week break from this show or whether it’s the fact that Dexter’s seventh season has been so good, but I found “Til Death” a bit of a chore. Nothing was really going on in this episode which was all about love, fate and the choices that we make in life. For our main man Finch that “choice” was quite a big one, faking his own death in order to protect Grace from ever knowing about the machine, Finch’s backing story is always one which I love to see, he is still surrounded in mystery just as he was in Lost and that really lends to his character for me, following this episode I really don’t think we are any closer to finding out that much about the guy, other than he was, and still is deeply in love with Grace. It will be interesting to see where they take this, will he reveal all to her? I’d say he’s got some major explaining to do if he does, and it would probably become a weakness for him if he brings her into the fold.

There was nothing going on this week with the main story of the show, the machine, corrupt HR, nothing. I did think for a brief moment that Fusco was finally going to get rumbled by Reese for joining in with his past shady ways once again, but that would have been too quick. I can’t help but think that Fusco’s dealings with HR are going to have some sort of come back on Finch, Resse or even Carter landing them in some sort of sticky situation probably towards the end of the season. Although, whilst were on the subject of “love” Fusco was having a little dating action himself this week, who knows, maybe that woman could turn him on the right path and Fusco could go straight once and for all.

Carter also found time for a little “love” this week with her fellow detective and Jamie Foxx look-alike asking her out to dinner, now that’s a role I had pinned down for Reese, I always thought our man in the suit would be the one who ended up dating Carter. Of course, at this time it’s only dinner, it might not even work out for her. It was nice to see everyone involved this week with the weekly procedural. The story was a bit lame but at least it was backed up by some decent acting talent in Mark Pellagrino, he and his hot shot wife had taken out contracts on each others lives only to be sat down at the end of the episode and be given some relationship advice from Mr Smooth himself John Reese. Reese is the only character who was not really delved into this week (unless I missed something), I don’t know why but I’m sure more will be coming about the mystery man in coming episodes.

Like I said above “Til Death” was all a bit of a chore for me, we seemed to be coming out of a lull of Person of interest episodes after “The High Road”, but this seems to have taken us back to square one. I know it will get better because there are so many avenues to be explored, I guess we should remember sometimes that POI has over 20 episodes in a season, from “Wolf and Cub” onwards in the first season it did not come up for air with one brilliant episode after another I just hope season 2 goes on to do the same. How about you? What did you think of this episode of Person of Interest? Your comments are welcome as always.

TV Review: DEXTER - The Dark...Whatever 7.10

I think this will probably go down as the least enjoyable episode of Dexter’s seventh season so far, I really didn’t feel like there was a whole lot going on here. It seemed like it was taking a step back towards the days of seasons five and six with Dexter questioning the killer inside him, otherwise known as his “Dark Passenger”, a scenario which new girlfriend Hannah McKay found totally ridiculous. “The Dark… Whatever” was ultimately an episode of Dexter questioning whether he even has a dark passenger at all, and thanks to a few “chats” with Hannah and Harry he came to realise that maybe he is the “monster” that he has talked about so often in the past. I still enjoyed this episode immensely, and I suppose there is no point on dwelling in characters gone, but one thing I have to say is that Issak Sirko (Ray Stevenson) was a big miss this week and it felt like the writers were attempting to fill the void with lesser story lines.

This episode did set a couple of things in motion, most important of those is the ever increasing threat of La Guerta and Matthews finding out that Dexter Morgan is the Bay Harbour Butcher. As yet they don’t know for sure, but I have said for weeks now that the circumstantial evidence is certainly mounting up against him and following this instalment I now think that this seasons finale named “Surprise Motherf**ker” will be the big reveal to all that Dexter Morgan is a serial killer, that story will roll into season 8 for sure but I’m not sure as yet how it will run, as always I can only speculate. I can’t really see them arresting Dexter by the end of this season or at the beginning of the next, what I think will happen is that Dexter will go on the run, we saw at the beginning of this season in “Are You…?” that he has a massive stash of fake passports and foreign currency. Personally, I think that will be a great story line as Dexter will be doing exactly what he done at the beginning of this seasons, squirming to get out of situations, he’s always better when he is having to dodge bullets.

What was the point of Hannah’s father (Supernatural’s Jim Beaver) being involved here? He served no useful purpose other than Dexter quenching one of his cravings. You knew from the off that this guy was no reformed character, can I borrow $20k? Of course you can! Yeah right, your reformed dad has turned up after years, he was a dick when you were younger and now he wants $20k to invest in some crab business or something like that. I knew where this was going from the moment he arrived at Hannah’s door.

The same could be said for The Phantom Arsonist, a character who was introduced a few episode’s a go for no apparent reason whatsoever, turns out this was to fill this weeks void of no Issak or other Ukrainian mobsters to be dealt with. I actually thought the fire safety guy would be the arsonist as Dexter thought, but it was a good enough little twist I suppose which led to the real criminal, a guy who had offended as a child but been clean since leaving his stint in juvenile detention, you see where we’re going with this? Yes, that’s right as a kid The Phantom Arsonist also enjoyed the same urges as Dexter, what was no great surprise was to see this dude on Dexter’s table by the end of the episode, only to let him go before killing Hannah’s father. The arsonist was introduced only for Dexter to realise that his “Dark Passenger” did not exist, a thing he really already knows, right?

I have speculated in the last few weeks also that Hannah might be the first of Dexter’s love interests for a while to make it through to another season of the show. I don’t necessarily think that has changed but maybe she won’t be with Dexter, maybe she will be behind bars giving up Dexter to save her own ass, especially now he has killed her father. Although I don’t think Dexter lied to her about what he had done, he told her she’d never have to worry about him again, now reading between the lines when your boyfriends a serial killer you should get what that means. Rolling towards this season’s finale is certainly going to be fun and I can’t wait to see how it works out, roll on next week’s “Do You See What I See?”.

TV Review: DEXTER - Helter Skelter 7.9

Wow, what a brilliant episode, unfortunate though. Issak Sirko has met the end of his story line and with that goes one of Dexter’s best ever “big bad’s”. Ray Stevenson has genuinely been one of the best characters I have seen in Dexter for a long time. Season 7 as a whole has been on another level compared to the previous two and Stevenson is a big part of that. Was Issak Sirko the season’s “big bad” though? It certainly seemed that way for the most part, but in the last few episodes it seemed like it would go the way it did in “Helter Skelter” with Issak and Dexter almost becoming friends, or at least enemies who learnt to trust one another with Dexter even learning a thing or two. Maybe we have been guessing the “big bad” wrong all along, maybe it’s nightclub boss George Novikov (Jason Gedrick) who is really the bad guy here, after all it initially seemed that Sirko had been sent to Miami to get George to clean up his act, however in “Argentina” it was George who called home and effectively ordered the hit on Issak.

I can’t think that Dexter will let George get away with killing Issak, yes he did him a favour and certainly got rid of a headache but you can’t help but think that he might end up on Dexter’s table before the finale of this seventh season. Quinn is in way over his head with George, this week throwing him through a window before beating him to a pulp, and I wonder if comments I made a few weeks back about writers throwing us a clue that Angel Batista may be getting killed off is going to happen? I said then that it would be some balls up made by Quinn which resulted in someone shooting Batista by accident, that someone may be George giving Dexter an even bigger reason to treat him to a night out on his table. As always I’ll probably be completely wrong but at least its fun to get some ideas going.

It will be interesting to see how they move the Dexter and Hannah story along now, Dexter is clearly head over heels in love with Hannah, but is that feeling mutual? I’d say probably not following their embrace at the hospital, Hannah seemed a little awkward to me. I thought last week that Hannah may be one of the only characters who rolls into another season, setting up an “ideal” life with Dexter and Harrison, but now I’m thinking that may not be the case. It’s one of those where I really don’t know how there going to go with it and I guess we will just have to wait and see. If anything I’d say that her Lila side may come out a little more, especially now that the threat of Issak is out of the picture, what will keep us entertained until the season finale?

Well, there’s always La Guerta who is all but convinced that she will be re-opening the Bay Harbour Butcher case, her primary target? Dexter Morgan. Now of course she has the help of her former boss Captain Matthews, who will help her out on the case in return for his old job back. I can’t see that being much of an exciting race to the finale can you? As yet La Guerta has nothing but circumstantial evidence against Dexter, eg; he moved his boat to a new marina about the time of the investigation. I’m thinking that Matthews might figure Dexter out before La Guerta does, after all it’s been proved in the past that she’s not exactly the best detective in the world. If Matthews, or anyone else does find out it will of course be in the season finale. Again, I may be totally wrong about it but it’s worth a mention to see what you think.

I hope that the excitement does not drop out this season now that they have done with the Issak story, I’d hate to think they got rid of him to early when all along it looked like he would be the usual suspect for Dexter’s kill table in the season finale, but I guess that’s a good thing because non of us now know where they are going with the story, we can only guess as I’ve done above. Dexter has been panned especially last season for becoming to predictable, there was nothing predictable about the way Issak was killed in this episode (not even by Dexter) and I think the writers are really working on making us sweat about what’s coming next. My favourite thing about tuning into this season so far was to see a Dexter showdown with Issak, as for next week I don’t know what to expect, I just hope it’s a good as season 7 has been so far.

“Helter Skelter” was a brilliant episode, where we were served up some brilliant scenes between Dexter and Issak and some real unpredictability in the way in which Issak was killed off, I loved this episode, I’m loving this season and I just hope things continue to get better and better as we roll towards the end of a season that has re-affirmed Dexter as the best show on TV.

TV Review: DEXTER - Argentina 2.8

I really don’t feel like there is all that much I want to say about “Argentina”, I thought it was a very good offering and I really enjoyed it but it did seem a little slower than what we have been used to so far in season 7. “Argentina” seemed to really step away from the main story this week for us all to become more involved in the character study side of things, and of course with the return of Astor, Cody and Harrison this weeks action was a little think on the ground. You would probably go with me and say though, the bar sit down between Dexter and Issak has to be one of the best scenes I have ever seen, Ray Stevenson really is an amazing actor as is Michael C. Hall, but Stevenson has you believing every word that comes out of his mouth, this guy is so convincing and it’s a shame that Dexter will probably end up killing him in a couple of episodes time.

But, what if Dexter didn’t kill him? What if Dexter manages to talk Issak around? After all the Koshka brotherhood wants him dead now anyway. There have been references made by Issak that in another set of circumstances he and Dexter could have been very good friends, no doubt using Dexter’s masterful killing and crime scene cleaning skills to help mask what the Mob had done, and let’s be honest there wouldn’t be many people who Issak Siko rolls with that wouldn’t fit Dexter’s code. So, that would maybe be good if we got to see Dexter helping Issak find his “Argentina”, that could maybe happen, as seen in the preview for next weeks episode Issak decides to invite himself around to Dexter’s apartment for “a chat”, I guess we’ll have to wait and see what that’s about.

Of course Dexter seems to have already found his “Argentina” in Hannah McKay (Yvonne Strahovski), but let’s face it she’s not exactly Rita or Lumen is she? Hannah is the first woman who accepts Dexter for exactly what he is in every aspect of his life, or at least it seems that way for now, his kids have only just come back on the scene and it’s yet to be seen whether or not she accepts that side of his life, and even if she does I don’t think Hannah is a sit in with the kids while Dexter is out doing his thing. Hannah seems to like Dexter as much as he likes her but it’s not something you can see lasting, but you never know. Lumen is one of the characters we thought may roll into another season of Dexter, that didn’t happen but maybe Hannah is here for the remainder of this show.

Now onto Debra and Dexter, finally eight episodes in she has told him the reason she came back to the church at the end of season 6, to tell him she loved him. Now, like many of us watching Dexter really didn’t know what to do with that, a little taken back maybe but clearly not in love her. I have heard plenty of people moaning about this story line, I wouldn’t say that I like it and that I don’t find it a little weird but I do think some people are to hung up on it. I guessing that following Dexter’s almost nothing response that it probably won’t be brought up again, but who knows?

Now as Debra sits and ponders where to go next with the current Dexter situation it’s clear that she is not doing one side of her job properly, other than smoking pot on the balcony with Astor she has also left La Guerta to get on with her Bay Harbour Butcher investigation. She did tell her to leave it alone, but she should have guessed that wouldn’t happen. Now for the last couple of weeks everything that La Guerta has uncovered links back to Dexter Morgan, nothing illegal as yet, but still very good circumstantial evidence that he is the Bay Harbour Butcher. This week’s final scene was La Guerta at Dexter’s boat “Slice of Life”, could she be guessing that the name of his boat has even more meaning to it now?

So, to cap it off, I wasn’t blown away by this episode but I still think it was very good, La Guerta and her Bay Harbour Butcher case look as if they will be setting up the basis of the season 8 story, Issak probably won’t be around for season 8, which is a shame because this guy has brought some intensity to the show, Dexter doesn’t love Deb in any way other than his sister and Hannah may just be taking Bay Harbour Butcher punches with Dexter, like I said above I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

TV Review: PERSON OF INTEREST - Critical 2.7

I wouldn’t say I was all that blown away by this weeks Person of Interest episode “Critical”, it really didn’t do all that much for me up until the last twenty minutes or so when Reese decided that he had enough of playing games and donned his ass kicking shoes, even kicking one guy up onto a car bonnet. Last weeks “The High Road” was a lot more effective in the weekly procedural, although my liking of Son’s of Anarchy may have had something to do with that (go read the link). What “Critical” didn’t do this week was give me any reason to care about what was going to happen to the Dr’s wife, she didn’t get enough screen time and although we were “living it” through the eyes of the brilliant surgeon I didn’t feel all that engrossed. What served better last week was the fact we got to know the whole family in the story and what they all stood to loose, I really wasn’t feeling that this week.

“Critical” did do something which we didn’t see in “The High Road”, it moved on the story a little, bringing people back who haven’t been in the show for a while as well as introducing us to another possible “big bad” guy for Reese to keep watching out over his shoulder for. Alistair Wesley (Julian Sands) was the former MI-6 operative who this week was in New York with his elite team of former SAS soldiers, they needed business man and energy Tycoon Oliver Veldt to be done away with, their plan? Get the surgeon (mentioned above) to botch her open heart surgery on him, as Mr Wesley stands to make a fortune if energy tycoon is out of the picture. I think all in all this may serve as an introduction to a new bad guy, Wesley knows Reese from their former Government lives and left the party a little unhappy thanks to Finch and Reese messing with his plans. He will be back, he even said it himself, so I guess we will just have to wait and see what the writers have in store for a guy who like Elias will clearly be a worthy opponent to Reese.

You always know that Reese and Finch are going to win whatever battle they are involved with, and this week that was no different, even when it emerged that they were up against former elite SAS soldiers. It never crossed my mind that they wouldn’t win and save the girl’s life and her wife’s job. I have to be honest, the SAS is the UK’s elite in the military, I’ve never been in the military but from what I gather, in order to be in the SAS you have to be hard as f**k, non of Wesley’s crew really gave me that impression and Reese dropped them like flies, now I know he is ex CIA but aren’t they more of the thinking and strategy type? They leave fighting up to Navy Seals who would probably be the US equivalent of the SAS. Of course I wouldn’t want to see Reese get beat up and I’m pretty sure that the CIA, like MI-6 will train their field operatives to a pretty high standard.

No part again for Fusco this week (well, he was in a little at the end), not that I really missed him but his corrupt story line with HR will no doubt come back into the frame of things at some point. Nice to see Carter in on things though, although she wasn’t actually involved in the weekly procedural side of things, this week she was actually doing police work showing up at the office of some tech company where someone has just opened fire. That person just happened to be our old friend FBI Agent Snow, who unbeknownst to Carter had a bomb vest strapped to himself. This could be the week where Crater finally drops deeper into the fold, as Snow informed her that “She” is going to do something terrible. We as the audience have known since season 1 that Reese’s former partner Kara Stanton is still alive and has something planned, quite what that is we don’t know as yet but I’m hoping there will be some brilliant episodes to come so we can find out. Plus Reese doesn’t know she is still alive yet, so that should be fun. She doesn’t have a reason to go after Reese though, does she?

We are really starting to get some stack of bad guys built up in this show now, all of whom seem to have something against Reese, Finch or the Machine. It should serve as an excellent run for some hopefully brilliant episodes. This week was mediocre, but like I always say they can’t all be brilliant, I think this week’s could be the staging for some brilliance to come but I guess we will have to wait and see. How about you? What did you think of “Critical”?

TV Review: DEXTER - Chemistry 2.7 - Do What You Do Dexter

“Chemistry” is perhaps the slowest episode we have had in season 7 so far, but don’t let that deter you interest, the developments in the story in  during this episode are simply mouth watering and right now I can’t even begin to think where season 7 will end up in four episodes time. How will they close out this season? What might roll into the eighth? All we can do is guess and speculate and as usual I’m going to do all of that below whilst also talking through some other points from this brilliant episode of Dexter.

First off I have to start off at what for guys may well have been the best bit, Yvonne Strahovski naked, you have to admit it guys, and girls actually she looks good. Now that I’ve mentioned her we should probably start there, Hannah McKay the ultimate Femme Fatale, we knew that Hannah was going to be romantically linked to Dexter during this season but what we were not expecting was for Dexter to fall in love with his murderous counterpart. As always Dexter got it right Hannah is a killer and she never stopped killing, now she just poisons people, very cleverly though so much so that it’s untraceable and she never gets caught. It’s going to be interesting to see where they take this story, especially now as Debra has ordered that Dexter treats Hannah to a date on his table, will he do it? I doubt it.

Debra has had an interesting journey, from being utterly horrified on discovering that her step brother and love of her live is a serial killer she moved onto trying to help him, realising he was beyond help she moved onto allowing it to happen as long as she had nothing to do with the rituals, now she has stepped up one more, she wants nothing to do with it but after Hannah escaped justice yet again she has told Dexter to kill her. It’s unlikely I think, that Dexter will kill Hannah, she is the first of all the female partners in his life who accepts him for what he is on both sides of the law, what’s more likely to happen is that Debra will turn full circle herself and kill Hannah when Dexter refuses to do it. any thoughts?

What has been bubbling away brilliantly in the background is the story of Ukrainian Mob boss Issak Sirko (Ray Stevenson), one of the most convincing bad guys I have seen in Dexter and someone who poses a real threat to Dexter. I absolutely love this character and the two coming together in the restaurant was probably my favourite scene during this episode, you could liken it to the sit down between Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in Michael Bay’s Heat, that’s how powerful it was as Dexter described crushing Vincent’s scull with a fire extinguisher, the clearly shaken Issak replied with “your going to regret you ever shared that with me”, just after Dexter explained that he would be dealt the same had give or take the fire extinguisher.  

Things are really racing towards what is surely going to be one of the best season finale’s ever with season 7 of Dexter. What is going to happen? Well, we don’t know of course but right now I think that Hannah will be killed by either Debra or Issak, especially if Issak learns of Dexter’s love for her as he took away Vincent. What ever way they do it you can be sure that the last four episodes are going to be nail biting, especially in relation to the Dexter and Issak story, not only are we being taken back to season 2 with nods to Lila but now Dexter and Doakes, as Dexter finds himself with a worthy adversary who will stop at nothing to get to him.

Just to top all of that off Dexter now has another problem, La Guerta refused to leave the Bay Harbour Butcher case alone, even after her and Debra had talked about it not having any fresh leads. She reviewed the evidence one more and came across the boat moorings at the marina, and whose name is on the list? Of course, Dexter’s, if she wants to do this properly though she can’t go screaming Dexter’s name from the roof tops, she need to do it quietly. For this reason I think this is one story line which will be rolling into the eighth season with maybe even the FBI and Agent Lundy getting brought back into the show to investigate Dexter without the knowledge of Debra.

I can’t believe that after the summer we had of eager anticipation waiting on the start of season 7, we are sat here already talking about possible outcomes of it already and debating what may just keep rolling. Season 7 has been the best one of Dexter for a long time barely coming up for air and the writers have stopped at nothing to continually deliver problems for Dexter to deal with. It would seem the net is finally closing on our favourite serial killer and I can’t wait to see how they are going to wrap things up. La Guerta on the table anyone?

TV Review: PERSON OF INTEREST - The High Road 2.6

Well it would seem that Person of Interest is back to its best, if your interested more in the bubbling background story than the weekly procedural side of things then "The High Road" probably won't have interested you all that much, unless of course you are interested in the flashback story of how Finch met the love of his life Grace Hendricks (Carrie Preston, his wife in real life). The bubbling back story wasn't actually that bad but I really enjoyed this week’s procedural drama as Person of Interest went a little Sons of Anarchy with an Opie look-alike in Graham Wyler (David Denman). Person of Interest was back to what it does best, delivering a brilliant weekly procedural whilst letting the story unfold in the background.

“The High Road” was kind of no different to what we have seen in the last couple of week’s in that it didn’t really deliver any story of the Machine, reveal any past truths about Reese, Finch, Carter or Fusco, deal with the bubbling HR problem or anything of the sort. But, what Person of Interest done a whole lot better this week was the seemingly procedural story line. Graham Wyler, a seemingly legit business man and doting father living in the New York suburbs, his number has come up, but why? Cue the weekly twist, Graham is not Graham, he changed his name in order to go straight after a couple of his safe cracking friends got busted and done 15 years in prison, now they want him back for one final job before killing him in return for the time they have spent in prison. From then on in you just knew Reese was going to be kicking some ass.

What was good in the story this week was the back story of Finch and Nathan Ingram developing the Machine, I’m not sure if Finch wrote the code in a way where the Machine would adapt and learn or whether it was purely by chance that he realised that the Machine watched all the time, learnt Human behaviour and developed itself into what it is know. At first I thought the lady in the park painting was going to be a display of how Finch figured the machine could detect things before they happened. Turns out I was wrong (as usual) and the Machine was acting like a dating website matching Finch up with the perfect woman for him, that woman was Grace Hendricks the woman who Finch had to leave behind to protect her from what he knows. I touched on this during the first season of the show, but it does seem that Finch’s Machine is kind of like Terminator’s Skynet, only way cooler.

If you weren’t really interested in Finch and the love story side of things then “The High Road” certainly wasn’t going to let you down as the weekly procedural was just brilliant. Taking Reese out of the city and fighting for an “every man” was a brilliant move from the writers and also gave them the opportunity to bring Zoe Morgan (Paige Turco) back into the story. Her and Reese have brilliant chemistry and they bounce off each other (not in that way) really well, fancy moving into the suburbs and pulling your gun on the first girl scout who come knocking trying to sell some cookies! If this was Dexter then Reese would have been in their with Zoe already, the urges would have been to much. Who knows? Maybe Reese and Zoe will get together some day.

There was no Fusco this week, obviously keeping him self busy with HR issues, you know? Trying to keep his name out of certain documents in order that he does not get sent to prison, no worries though I’m pretty sure he will be back to his ways before long. If you hadn’t guessed already I thought “The High Road” was one of the best episodes of this second season so far, especially since Root has been done with for now, after two lesser weeks this was a real action packed episode with all the usual wit and excellent story. Reese and Zoe should be making more trips to the suburbs in my opinion. Roll on this weeks episode “Critical”, I can’t wait.

TV Review: PERSON OF INTEREST - Triggerman 2.4 & Bury The Lede 2.5

I have some catching up to do with Person of Interest, I haven’t reviewed any of the episodes since “Masquerade” which I actually really enjoyed, it really took the show back to what was so good during the opening season, it dealt with a weekly procedural story whilst the main plot involving the machine bubbled away in the background. Since “Masquerade” I have watched all the episode’s including “Triggerman” 2.4 and “Bury the Lede” 2.5 and have to say that I found them very forgetful, not what we have been used to of late with Person of Interest, I think since season one’s “Wolf and Cub” this show has continued to deliver brilliant episodes that we have come to expect it week on week. The first season didn’t go by without its offering of poorer quality episodes, I even debated whether or not I would be reviewing it week on week but thanks to “Mission Creep” any doubts I had were surpassed.

I suppose we can’t expect brilliant story developing episodes week on week, I still think Person of Interest is a brilliant show with a brilliant story that I’m sure still has many layers to be developed and I can forgive it for delivering a couple of poorer quality episodes at the beginning of the season. Although they have been poorer in quality I have still enjoyed the story which has been delivered, Reese has been kick ass as usual and what the show has done well is deal with the aftermath of Finch being kidnapped, he took that harder than even he thought he would. Finch has been frightened to leave the office, a fear that in “Bury the Lede” he finally seems to be making some strides to get over.

I’ll start with the fourth episode “Triggerman”, it’s been a while since I watched it and its no longer on my DVR so I think this will be more of a recap than a review, you can count the above as a review if you like. “Triggerman” was actually an ok episode but it did nothing in relation to moving on the story of the machine, as always a new number was delivered, that of Riley Cavanaugh, an Irish Mob enforcer who worked for a mid level gangster named George Massey. At first it was obvious to Reese and Finch that he would be the perpetrator, and they needed to stop him doing something, but then hold up! The usual Person of Interest twist came to the front and it turned out that the guy was actually going to be the victim thanks to his love of Annie Delaney, one of Massey’s former partners, Massey knows and was going to be dealing with him and Reese needed to stop him. Problem was that Riley saw Reese as a threat, so needed his ass kicked before he realised that Reese was actually there to help him. A decent episode like I say but nothing involving the machine just your weekly procedural to see here.

Onto last week’s “Bury the Lede” a good episode I thought, again nothing here about the machine but a real comeback for a problem that we thought had been dealt with by the end of the first season. HR was supposedly done with after Elias went to prison but if “Triggerman” proved anything then it was that Elias reach far extends the bars of his prison cell, after his sit down with Finch he called off the hit that Massey was planning so I guess it was a given that HR would be coming back into the story. What is sad about that is the corruption of Fusco, he was corrupt to start with until Reese got him cleaned up but it seems that HR’s secrets and what he’s done in the past are just going to be too much to keep covered up if he remains legit. Now that Fusco has once again stepped over to the dark side you can’t help but thing that is going to scupper what Reese and Finch are trying to achieve, but I’m pretty sure Reese will figure him out before he gets to out of hand. It’s a shame because I actually quite like Fusco, he’s does provide some laughs in the show, hopefully he will stick to his new morals for a little longer.

“Bury the Lede” was helped in its weekly procedural in that it tied in with the story of HR, the latest number to be delivered by the machine was Maxine Angelis, a New York investigative reporter who is currently looking into HR, trying to expose the head of its operation and the other names involved, that of course would include Fusco so whilst Reese is trying to help Maxine, Fusco is trying to help HR in keeping her from finding out their names. It was a good episode which I enjoyed and hopefully it will serve as a stepping stone to getting the story up and moving again.

It will be back to normal for me with Person of Interest this week, with “Bury the Lede” I was confused as it had not been uploaded to where I normally get it from, I actually thought it had not been on because of a Presidential debate, it was only when I saw a review and checked CBS’s website that I figured I had missed an episode, ISOHunt saved the day and I managed to get it from there, at least I know it is on this week so hopefully normal service will resume with me watching it on a Friday night. Roll on “High Road”.