News: Beauty and the Beast, Chicago Fire Get Full Seasons, Haven Renewed, Episode Order Reduced for Family Tools

Still catching up on TV news after the resurrection of my computer. Both Beauty and the Beast and Chicago Fire were picked up for full seasons, and Syfy renewed Haven for a fourth season. I’m kinda meh about the Beauty and the Beast news – the show hasn’t really hooked me yet, though I’m still reluctantly watching. I was hoping Cult would claim the post-Vampire Diaries slot midseason to bring over the Matt Davis fans.

The midseason comedy The Family Tools has had its episode order reduced from 13 episodes to 10, due to scheduling issues. Also, Netflix is looking at working with AMC to renew The Killing.

Arrow – Damaged

After several insane episodes and a crazy cliffhanger on the last one, I knew Arrow would have to slow down the pace at some point, and this episode was it. But it still was filled with many awesome character moments, even if the coolest action scenes took place 5 years ago on the island.

Spoilers below!

And the island is where this episode started, even though I was dying to find out what would happen after Oliver’s arrest last episode. Oliver steps away for one minute from his island mentor (to retrieve his first poorly-shot arrow – cool that we got to see that) and is captured. He’s questioned by an officer and answers honestly, until the man pulls out a photo of his mentor in military dress and asks if Oliver’s seen him and where he is. Oliver lies (badly), and keeps up the charade of not knowing the guy, even when Deathstroke shows up and starts torturing him. I’m not sure how long it’s been since the shipwreck (Oliver’s hair still looks mostly the same, so I’m guessing only a few weeks), but that’s an amazing amount of loyalty to show for a guy who shot an arrow through your chest. The mentor comes in and rescues Oliver (with a cool fight with Deathstroke) just as the bad guys decide he probably doesn’t know anything and can be killed. The archer is suitably impressed by Oliver not ratting him out, and says there’s more to Oliver than he thought.

The flashbacks neatly parallel Oliver’s present-day arrest and interrogation. He claims he just saw the bag and took it, and that Quentin just has a personal vendetta against him. He asks his mother to request Laurel as his lawyer. Laurel at first refuses, but shows up at his arraignment and gets him out on bail, with a tracking anklet.

Diggle is freaking out (in his calm way) about the arrest, but Oliver tells him he knew about the security camera and was planning to get arrested. The timing of Arrow’s appearance with his return would eventually lead people to figure out who he was, so better to remove himself as a suspect now. To clear his name, he has a plan – let Dig dress up as Arrow and stop an arms dealer while Oliver hosts a “prison party” with plenty of witnesses. It was so fun watching Dig explore all of the cool gadgets in Oliver’s lair!

Oliver and Laurel meet with Quentin and the prosecutor, who offers an insanity plea deal based on Oliver being on the island for so long. Oliver refuses, saying he wants to take a polygraph and convince Quentin of his innocence. The polygraph scene was one of my favorites in the episode, especially since we got to see Laurel’s reaction to Oliver’s answers. Oliver tells Quentin he’s not the vigilante and lies about a few other things surrounding that, but is able to act like he’s telling the truth. Quentin then confronts him with discrepancy between his scars and being alone on the island, and Oliver confesses that he wasn’t alone, but he didn’t want to talk about it, because the people there tortured him. When Quentin asks if he’s killed anyone, Oliver says yes – “Your daughter, Sarah, because I invited her onto my boat.”

Before the party, Thea questions Oliver about the arrowhead he brought back for her, thinking that indicates he’s really the vigilante. Oliver assures her he isn’t, and lies and says he got the arrowhead at an airport gift shop. Meanwhile, their mom and stepdad are dealing with their own issues. Moira assures unnamed-dude-played-by-John-Barrowman (I’ve finally gotten to a few of his episodes on Doctor Who, so I can now see why people are excited that he’s on the show! Also, if they’re going to all this trouble to hide his name, I’m guessing he’ll end up being a significant character from the comics?) that Oliver has been falsely accused. Walter has his head of security move the damaged boat to a different warehouse, but the man turns up dead.

Laurel shows up at the party to apologize for her father. I’ve only been able to pick up a little about the Black Canary from people talking about the comics, but there appears to be two references in this scene. One, she mentions annoying fishnets in one of her Halloween costumes, which are part of the Black Canary’s traditional attire. Two, she talks about how after Sarah died, she and her father retreated to the law while her mother didn’t. In the comics, her mom is the original Black Canary – could this be a hint that the show plans to include that?

Those who were complaining about the chemistry between Stephen Amell and Katie Cassidy in the pilot should really watch this scene and the one a little later on. I’m so glad to be right that it would get better (since I’d seen the spark they shared during interviews)! The mix of anger, feigned indifference, attraction, friendship, and sadness Laurel is supposed to feel at any given moment toward Oliver must be a struggle to get right.

Laurel admits, in all her mourning for Sarah, she didn’t think about what Oliver went through on the island. She asks to see his scars and they kiss for a few moments before she bolts out of the room. Diggle calls to report scaring off the bad guys, and Oliver is interrupted by a man, dressed as staff for the party, knocking on his door. He opens it and the man tries to shoot him. They fight, and in the middle Quentin comes in and shoots the guy.

Walter confronts Moira with knowledge of the ship and seems to think she’s behind the head of security’s death. We don’t see the end of their conversation. It’s not clear whether it was interrupted by news of the attack on Oliver, but in a later scene, Walter informs Moira that he’s leaving on an extended business trip to Australia.

Quentin explains that the fight knocked Oliver’s anklet loose, which is why he came up to check on him. Also, he says several witnesses spotted Arrow in another part of town, so he removes the anklet completely and says they’ll be dropping the charges. He doesn’t know who Oliver’s attacker was, but Moira insists that it’s Quentin’s fault for arresting Oliver publicly and putting a target on his back for everyone angry with the vigilante. Oliver thanks Quentin for saving his life.

Moira goes to John Barrowman, and it’s pretty clear he’s calling the shots (so I might have been wrong about Moira being coldblooded – perhaps she found out about the sabotaged boat after the fact? I couldn’t find an exact quote of the earlier conversation). He was the one who killed the head of security and tried to have Oliver killed. Moira tells him she’s been a “good soldier” (is he blackmailing her to keep the same arrangement he had with her late husband?), but, “if any member of my family so much as gets a paper cut, I will burn your entire world to ashes.”

Laurel comes to Oliver with the final polygraph results. There’s a slight waver on the question about whether he’d ever been at the prison (where he rescued Laurel), and she wonders if he remembered their field trip there as teens, or if he’s able to lie well enough to beat a polygraph. Oliver tells her he doesn’t want people to view him as damaged, but he doesn’t sleep, he barely eats, and he can hardly sign his own name – how could he wield a bow and arrow? She tells him that they’re still obviously attracted to each other, but they can never be together. (Cue seasons-long will they/won’t they drama.)

Dig is upset that Oliver’s lying to everyone so easily, and wonders if he really thought through this aspect of his mission – deceiving every one he cares about. Oliver assures him that he thinks about it every day – and heads to take out the arms dealer, who didn’t heed Diggle’s warning. But I’m guessing both Laurel and Thea still aren’t fully convinced that Oliver isn’t Arrow. It’s going to be a lot harder for him to tell anyone else now – it’s one thing to have a secret identity, it’s another to outright deny accusations and purposely mislead, and those who find out will have to get over feeling somewhat betrayed first.

As I said, this was a great episode, even if it lacked jaw-dropping moments like the previous ones had. I’m sad to see Walter go (for a bit at least) – I liked his character more than I expected. I missed Felicity in this episode, and we’ve seen far too little of Tommy lately.

What are your thoughts on the episode?

Friends: The Complete Series Blu-Ray Giveaway!

Warner Bros. is sponsoring a giveaway of the complete series of FRIENDS (10 seasons!) on Blu-Ray! Keep reading for more details about the prize (worth $279.99) and enter to win! (The Raffercopter entry form is at the end of this post.)

Friends is an American sitcom about six friends struggling to survive on their own in Manhattan. In each episode, they find the companionship, comfort and support from each other to be the perfect solutions to the pressures of everyday life.  The series stars ‘The Ones That Were There For You’ for ten seasons strong: Jennifer Aniston as “Rachel Green,” Courteney Cox as “Monica Geller,” Lisa Kudrow as “Phoebe Buffay,” Matt LeBlanc as “Joey Tribbiani,” Matthew Perry as “Chandler Bing,” and David Schwimmer as “Dr. Ross Geller.” Friends has also featured many notable guest stars including Tom Selleck, Aisha Tyler, Jon Favreau, Anna Faris, Hank Azaria, Bruce Willis, Reese Witherspoon, Christina Applegate,  Sean Penn, Jon Lovitz, Alec Baldwin, and many more.  Friends was created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman and aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television.

This ultimate collector’s set for the ultimate fan features over 110 hours of content – including all 236 original broadcast episodes released for the first time in the US, plus 20 hours of special features including over three hours of newly-added special features.  New content includes a retrospective documentary with new interviews looking back at the influential 10 years of the series, never-before-released cast appearances, unaired footage, a new gag reel and more!   All 10 seasons have been completely remastered in stunning 1080p high definition video with a 16×9 widescreen format and 5.1 audio.  The Friends:  Complete Series Blu-ray box set is presented in highly collectible new packaging consisting of a lenticular box cover, a hard-cover book that holds 21 Blu-ray discs, plus a 32-page episode guide.

In celebration of this release, Warner Bros. is helping fans relive the Friends experience with the apps below! Answer Friends trivia to win badges, find out which character you are most like (you’ll need the answer for one of our giveaway entry options!), and check back weekly for a new mashup video!

This giveaway will be open through Tuesday, November 27, 2012. Winner must have a US mailing address (no P.O. Box addresses).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

News: Burn Notice Gets Season 7, NCIS: LA Launches Mobile Spinoff, Nikita Moves Back to 8PM Fridays

Personal note: Windows failed to load on my computer Monday, leading to frantic attempts to fix and use of super-slow old computers – and no new posts on this blog. I reinstalled Windows several hours ago, and have been working to get my computer back to normal (fortunately most stuff was backed up). In the meantime, TV news kept coming in! Here are some highlights:

Burn Notice has been renewed for a 13-episode season 7! This is notably shorter than its usual 16-18 episode seasons, but it has not been announced as the final season (there was some speculation that it would). The second half of season 6 resumes today at 9/8c with a special two-hour premiere.

NCIS: Los Angeles is preparing a special two-part episode to launch a potential spin-off  series. The potential series would focus on a mobile NCIS unit that travels around the country solving Navy-related crimes. This two-part-planted-pilot has become a mainstay in the franchise. NCIS: Los Angeles had one on the original NCIS, while NCIS itself was a spin-off of JAG. Expect the episode to give a good feel of what the potential show would look like, but there will likely be some tweaking (on NCIS: Los Angeles, Hetty replaced Macy when the show started the following fall; on NCIS, Kate Todd replaced Vivian Blackadder).

Nikita is moving back to its old 8PM timeslot on November 30 and will be followed by Arrow repeats. The show has struggled in its 9PM slot against increased scripted competition (Grimm, Fringe, and CSI:NY all also air at that time). This week will be its final 9PM outing, and then it will take two weeks off – for the two-hour season final of America’s Next Top Model, and for Thanksgiving weekend.

FX has released the first trailer for its Cold War spy drama, The Americans, starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys. Take a look:

Supernatural – Route 666

And after a couple of decent episodes, Supernatural returns to a ho-hum one. This time, we get a blast from Dean’s past when his old girlfriend calls him up about her father’s suspicious murder. It should have been a great episode, but it was hampered by the fact that there wasn’t much chemistry between Dean and Cassie.

The best part of the episode was Sam’s facial expressions. He played the teasing younger brother role to a T. And I loved Dean’s reaction to Sam’s confession that his plan (which involved using Dean as bait) was only a theory he thought would maybe work.

The title of this episode didn’t have much to do with a series of racially-motivated murders committed by a ghost truck. While three of the murders took place off of Route 6, the location didn’t have anything to do with them. They turned out to be all tied to a murder/cover-up from the 1960s.

While there were a few intense moments when vehicles or people were being chased down by the truck, in all the episode didn’t have a creepy feel to it. It also seemed pretty standalone, with no references to the traumatic events of the previous episode. And since it looks like Cassie never shows up again on the show, there won’t be much if any impact on future episodes.

I’ve gotten far enough into the show that one episode like this isn’t going to make me put the show on the back burner, but after the past two episodes I was hoping for something better. Only nine more episodes left until season two (which I’ve heard really improves the show)!

Renew/Cancel News: USA Cancels Common Law, Fairly Legal, and Political Animals; Close to Renewing Burn Notice

The news that USA Network canceled both freshman Common Law and sophomore Fairly Legal shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise since several actors from the shows moved on to other things after the network let their contract options expire. Since I don’t watch either show, the news doesn’t bother me. I just hope USA finds some great shows to replace them. USA also chose not to put up a second season of limited-series show Political Animals.

No word yet on the fate of Necessary Roughness, but apparently Burn Notice is very close to a seventh season renewal. Season 6 resumes November 8 with a two-hour episode. Also, production has started on new series Graceland.

Fox recently reduced the 13-episode order for midseason comedy The Goodwin Games to 7. The network says the reduction is due to scheduling, not the show’s quality. It will likely air after Ben and Kate finishes its 19-episode season.

Brendan Fraser Exits Legends — TNT Pilot – TVLine

Okay, I wasn’t sure Brendan Fraser could pull off this role (he doesn’t seem to have too wide a range of characters he could play convincingly). So who do you think the show should cast as a “conflicted undercover agent who has an uncanny ability to transform himself into a different person for each job”?

I’m going with Enver Gjokaj. He already proved he was amazing at this in Dollhouse, plus if they’re going for a similar look to Fraser, he fits the bill.

Brendan Fraser Exits Legends — TNT Pilot – TVLine.

Arrow – An Innocent Man

Wow. With this week’s episode, I was shocked once again by how fast things are progressing on Arrow. I love that the writers are letting this show’s characters be intelligent, and are using that to drive the plot. A procedural drama this is not.

Spoilers below!

I’ll admit that a few moments of this episode made me wince. The opening had both an extended intro and previously on section that felt way too long (though that is a good way for anyone who hadn’t seen the first three episodes to get caught up – I just hope they don’t feel the need to do that every episode). A few too-grandiose statements are made by both Oliver and Laurel that don’t fit the scenes or the characters. Laurel seems to buy Arrow as a good guy way too fast (and then change her mind just as suddenly).

During the scene where Arrow drops off the info about the supervisor lying, and Laurel is making another cringe-worthy statement, I checked to see how much time I had left – and realized the episode was only halfway through. And therein lies this show’s brilliance. They were making me think the whole point of the episode was to get Laurel to appreciate Arrow, when that was only the setup for the real meat of the episode – how killing changes you, and changes others’ perception of you.

I loved that Laurel got some scenes with Oliver-as-Arrow in “An Innocent Man.” I was ready for her to recognize him at any moment, though I knew it wasn’t likely for another character to find out who he was so soon after the reveal to Diggle. Even so, when her eyes widened in shock after stopping him from killing the man who had attacked her, I thought for sure she realized it was Oliver. Instead, she’d only seen the coldness in his eyes, ruining whatever good opinion of him she’d previously had.

The main plot of this episode was a little tenuous, but took some cool turns. Oliver seemed to believe Peter Declan’s innocence a little too quickly. Not every person working for a corporation with an evil CEO who dies under suspicious circumstances was killed by order of the evil CEO (no matter how often it happens on TV shows). But with the time crunch, maybe Oliver just went with his gut.

I truly thought the judge would stay the execution after the new evidence showed up, but perhaps it was too peripheral, or the evil CEO bribed the judge. Staging a prison riot was an interesting way of getting rid an annoying lawyer. A guard uniform and a ski mask were almost laughable with the bow and arrows, but at least Oliver didn’t have to keep turning his head to keep Laurel from seeing his face.

In addition to the main plot of saving Peter’s life (and later Laurel’s too), there were tons of other things going on in this episode. Thea was actually likable after being such a brat last episode (seems switch back and forth in every episode with her). I love her directness with her brother, the fact that he took her advice, and her glee over him actually smiling. Plus, her saying, “I got mad relationship skills, bro” was just about perfect. She’s shaping up to be this show’s Claudia (Warehouse 13).

Mama Queen is still being evil, meeting with one of her cohorts, who is played by John Barrowman (I haven’t seen Torchwood, but fans seemed pretty excited about this, so I figured I’d mention it!). He’s figured out that Arrow is taking down everyone on the list. Meanwhile, Walter is suspicious of missing millions in an account and Moira’s explanation for it, so he asks Felicity to look into it (she hilariously believes she’s getting fired) and that leads him to a warehouse hiding the destroyed yacht.

Diggle reacts to Oliver’s reveal of himself as Arrow by attacking the man who just saved his life. Oliver tries to explain what he’s doing, but Dig calls him a criminal and a murderer (and in the next scene, Laurel yells at him too. Not Oliver’s best day). He resigns as Oliver’s bodyguard, but Oliver shows up at his sister-in-law’s restaurant to share a few more details: the list his father gave him, the fact that his father shot himself to keep Oliver alive, and that he just took out his brother’s murderer. (Bonus: the replacement bodyguard is humorously inept.) Dig decides to join Oliver on his mission, but not as a sidekick, more of a moral compass and support (perhaps the Tuck to Ollie’s Robin Hood?).

Quentin Lance didn’t get many scenes in this episode, but they’re doozies. He gives Laurel some details about the case, and when one of those details is used by Arrow for the first attempt at delaying the execution, he confronts Laurel about helping a criminal. After Laurel gets out of the prison, she shares with her dad the lack of remorse she saw in Arrow’s eyes, and how it confirmed what her dad had been trying to tell her: the hooded vigilante isn’t a do-gooder, but a stone cold killer. Oliver’s face as he heard the conversation from a nearby roof almost made me cry.

Laurel mentions the new getup Arrow was sporting, and that gives Quentin an idea. He combs through the footage of last episode’s shooting, looking not just for Arrow, but anything out of the ordinary – and spots Oliver Queen running up stairs and grabbing stuff out of a trash can. Just as Dig joins Oliver’s cause, the police arrive and arrest the castaway on suspicion of being Arrow.

That ending completely blew me away. I have no idea how Oliver’s going to get out of this mess, but it’s brilliant that the show plans to deal with Oliver and Arrow showing up at the same time right away. It lets the police seem smart, but Oliver gets to show that he’s even smarter. Plus the previews for next week look amazing!