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Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what I’ve seen over the past week either in film or television. On the film side, if I have written a full length review already, I will post a link to that review. Otherwise, I’ll give a brief snippet of my thoughts on the film with a full review to follow at some point later. For television shows, seasons and what not, I’ll post an individual comment here about each of them as I see fit.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

The IT Crowd (Seasons 1-4)

With only six episodes per season, quick bites enabled me to get through all four seasons of The IT Crowd in short order. Once you get past the sheer outlandish way the characters speak and act, you can settle into the humor and enjoy yourself. Not the best performances ever to grace the small screen, but they are lovable characters whose successes and failures, each equally filled with hilarity, compel you to like them even more. The most interesting fact to come out of watching the remaining episodes of the first season and all from the other three seasons, was that the actor who played Roy, Chris O’Dowd, just happened to make an appearance in the film I saw less than an hour after having watched the first episode of The IT Crowd: Bridesmaids. I was afraid that this was the last season of the show, but it turns out they have commissioned a fifth six-episode season. Glad to know it will be around for a bit longer at least.

Leverage (Season 3, episodes 5-12)

One of my favorite time wasters, Leverage has some fun, likable characters whose thieving tendencies have been turned towards helping those whom the rich and powerful have tried to step all over. The season-spanning plot introduced in episode 1 finally made another appearance in episode 5. After I lamented in my last article that it had been absent, I was glad to see it back even if the plot seemed inconsequential in the end. That plotline showed in one other episode so far, so it looks to make an appearance every four episodes or so. The most entertaining episode this season so far was “The Rashomon Job”, an episode where the five members of the crew reveal they each attempted to steal an expensive artifact, but trying to figure out who actually ended up with it is part of the fun of the episode. This isn’t a series of great production values, brilliant performances or Pulitzer-caliber writing; however, it is a fun program that has some interesting character dynamics, compelling characters and a clever, stick it to the man approach to its storylines.

The Dresden Files (Seasons 1, episodes 1-4)

This one-season series had its followers, but not enough to save it from cancellation. Perhaps it was too much of a blend between fantasy and police procedural to be of much success. Cross-genre programming is difficult to make successful even if its a strong concept. And The Dresden Files had some good ideas going. In the first four episodes, there were enough promising attributes that it could have made a success for itself. The actors aren’t terribly good, but the setting is solid. I’ll be interested to see what happened in the final eight episodes. Perhaps it was a fluke that the show just ended up cancelled. Part of the show’s problem may have been that it was adapted from a novel series. Notoriously hard to get fans on board, an adaptation of this time requires a lot of promotional money, which may have been its biggest issue.

Star Trek (The Original Series): The Menagerie, Part 2


Watching this episode again reminds me of just how inventive Gene Roddenberry was. Here he was with a pilot episode the studio wouldn’t release because they had commissioned a different beginning and Roddenberry found a way to incorporate it fully and exceptionally into its own flashback episode. Seldom has such a stunt worked so brilliantly. This is one of those episodes where we see just how far the morality of the Federation exemplifies what we should all become. Here is a man, Vulcan perhaps, but displaying more human characteristics than any of us could, saying damned be the death penalty, I will do what is right for my friend and former captain. Spock’s noble deed, fully revealed in this second part of “The Menagerie” showed us where our humanity could dominate our fears.

Star Trek (The Original Series): The Conscience of the King


A governor who murdered thousands of colonists to preserve the remainder of the population and was thought to be dead, turns up again as the central focus of this performance-driven episode. One of nine eye-witnesses believes he has found this governor masquerading as a Shakespearean actor in a travelling troop. When this man ends up dead, the two remaining living witnesses become endangered, the Captain is one of them. It is fitting that an episode so solidly performed would be built around stage actors in a performing troop. There are no grand futuristic ideals on display in this episode, but it does question the ideas of revenge, loyalty and compassion. Kirk must decide if the circumstantial evidence supports a condemnation of an old man or allow himself to rely on his gut, something his crew is unable to avoid. There were several points where dialogue could have been introduced to make this a bit more deep, such as identifying earlier one of the eye-witness’ relationship to the potential mass-murderer or more input from Bones who has a number of valuable pieces of insight to share with the more logical Spock. Nevertheless, it’s a strong episode.

Star Trek (The Original Series): Balance of Terror


Still one of the finest episodes ever written for television. Two mortal enemies, commanded by equally calm, equally intelligent, equally impassioned men dedicated to their culture’s way of life. Locked in a confrontation that keeps the audience riveted. Yet, the episode has more than just a immortal conflict at play. In 1966 when the episode aired, the Civil Rights struggle was ongoing and without being obvious, the series tackled racism between human and Vulcan in a way that foreshadowed Vietnam almost as much as it complimented the struggles for acceptance in then-modern America. Add into that the idea that life on a Starfleet vessel, in protection of a way of life, is a risk in itself. Death is not a foreign concept among the stars and there is a cost for freedom. Accept, unite and persevere. There are only a small handful of episodes in the entirety of Star Trek canon that are better than this one.

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