This Week on My TV: August 16, 2014

Disclaimer: Consider the fact that there could be spoilers ahead. You read at your own risk!



**(The Last Ship, S1E4 "We'll Get There") I do like the way they introduce the ship's crew's family lives, through flashback and conversation. -- I'm a big fan of Lt Chung. There's something about him that I find real. -- Two words to describe Quincy: bitter and self righteous. -- Another character I really like is the Chaplain. He provides quiet strength, a sense of hopeful determination, and a voice of reason and encouragement. -- Of course, there would be various emergencies to be faced in the episode: burned up engines that require a standstill during repair result in the lost ability to make drinking water, a lab that can no longer be properly cooled which threatens Rachel's whole vaccine process, and basically floating in the ocean under a relentless sun and no land in sight. I knew they would work through all of that, because they have to, for the show to go on. The story of the week is less important to me than the characters.

**(The Last Ship, S1E5 "El Toro") I totally knew that the trap that soldier stepped in was going to be loaded with poison. -- El Toro was an interesting and formidable opponent-of-the-week. What a horrific individual. I was kind of hoping they would exile him to the infected side of the river like he did to the mayor's daughter. My sense of justice was still satisfied that it was the mayor who killed him though. -- Speaking of the infected side of the river, I can't even fathom how helpless the crew must feel, knowing there is nothing they can do to help. -- Ok, Rachel has her monkeys. Now what? Also, if she can test out the vaccine on them, wouldn't it imply they can catch the virus? So why can't they also pass the virus on to humans?

**(Reckless, S1E3 "Stand Your Ground") Nice little dig for Jamie when she told Preston there were a lot of things they didn't know about each other, after he said she wasn't above trolling his murder scene for clients. -- The way they do the lighting and color-tone in this show is exactly right for conveying a sultry, steamy climate. -- Deputy Chief Knox [to Jamie]: That's rich. A Yankee trying to throw "stand your ground" in my face? -- Creepy Terry showing up in Lee Anne's house, unannounced and just appearing from around a corner, to make threats, stalking people associated with Lee Anne's lawsuit against him and the department, and blackmailing a college student who just so happens to be the daughter of Jamie's assistant, Vi. -- I figured the intruder was having an affair with someone in the house. I expected it to be the husband, though, not the wife, and that he shot the guy to cover it up. -- Vi [to Jamie about Roy]: That boy's so hot, you could fry an egg on him. -- I like the way they show texts on this show. Instead of showing us the phone's screen, it pops up as text on the television screen. -- OMG, Terry had Vi's daughter install spy cams all over the places Jamie lives and works?? He is a bigger creep than I even originally thought. -- Jamie, it all goes downhill when you start snooping on your man's computer. -- So, was it Terry or someone in the local government who pitched the explosive through Lee Anne's and Arliss's window?

**(Turn, S1E7 "Mercy Moment Murder Measure") Wow, that prison ship, the Jersey, was a place of horrors. -- LOL moment: When Abe awoke to see Caleb in the rocking chair beside his bed and sprang off the mattress like someone had lit him on fire. -- Though I thought, perhaps Samuel Tallmadge had taken on the identity of another prisoner that had died, in order to "hide himself in plain sight," that was apparently not what happened. I never would have guessed that was Selah Strong! -- Amazing! Abigail managed to convey a message to Anna inside the hat she knitted her son as a birthday gift! She found a way to communicate and made the British her couriers. So brilliant!! -- While there are fleeting moments when I find Hewlett and Andre sympathetic, and at times, dare I say, almost likable, I never have that issue with Simcoe. *Ever*. -- So, suddenly, all those things Mary Woodhull said to Anna about not caring if Anna and Abe were romantically involved were apparently not true at all and she does care. And she's a little bit manipulative too, that one, calling Richard "Father"...and then angling to get Selah Ward a pardon in order to keep Abraham and Anna apart. -- Robert Rogers is a slippery snake. Posing Selah Ward as Samuel Tallmadge in order to lure Ben out into the open at the prisoner exchange. -- Oh man. A gentleman's duel between Abraham and Simcoe. This is not good for Abe. -- Clever move by Anna, to thwart Simcoe's advances by playing her "honor" card! -- Every time someone cracks open an eggshell, I worry they are going to discover a secret spy message by mistake. -- Anna [to Abe, about their "business trip" to New York"]: This is business we're about, so let's get about it. ... Wow. Cold. I also feel like I need to keep this line in my "arsenal." It seems like it could be useful.

**(Turn, S1E8 "Challenge") Oh for heaven's sake. Anna is *still* not over the fact that Abe broke off their engagement? I mean, really. Enough time has passed for both Abe and Anna to have married others, and for Abe to father a child who is a year old already. Probably time to let it go? -- I'm not sure how this is going to play out, with the British using Selah as a stand-in for Samuel Tallmadge, at the same time Anna is supposed to be collecting him, via pardon, from the Jersey. He can't be in both places! -- I cannot figure out all these accents. Are they intentionally *not* all British? Or, with the exception of Rogers, who is specifically Scottish, are all these people attempting to sound British, with more than half of them coming off Irish and Scottish? -- Anna wants Abe to take her into a "gentleman's party" at Andre's house as a guest?? What man brings a lady guest with him to THAT?! -- OMG. Anna found a way into the party anyway as one of the "ladies" providing "entertainment"?? That's resourceful but with all the long angry stares between her and Abe, they're going to blow each other's cover. Pull yourselves together, you two! You're being *terrible* spies! -- That speech Abe gave, when asked by the other party guests "who would he kill," saying he would like to kill the man that caused the riots that resulted in his brother's death seemed as much as apology to Anna for breaking their engagement as it was an answer that was believable and a way to "prove" his allegiance to the Crown. -- OMG, it was *Abe* who started that riot?? The exchange he shared with Anna about that was so heartbreaking...

**(Mad Men, S7E7 "Waterloo") I can't remember any other time on this show that we got a glimpse into Burt Cooper's home life. Wow. And he looked like a little kid, all lit up over the shuttle launch. Love it! -- What the hell, Ted?! You take Sunkist up in the plane, and then cut the engines and talk about death??? And why didn't *you* get the "Don treatment" for that anyway?! -- Jim Cutler [to Lou, who is still whining over Don "costing him his chance with tobacco"]: We don't owe you anything. You're a hired hand. Now, get back to work. ... Zing! -- Oh boy. I saw Sally making eyes at the oldest son of...Betty's college friend? Whose family is staying at the Francis house for some reason? -- Hmmmm... How long til Peggy ends up hooking up with the handyman who is there putting in her ceiling? -- Did Don's secretary really try to make out with him after he read the letter about his breach of contract?? And did he really turn her down?? How...un-Don-like. When she grabbed his chin, looked into his eyes, told him she knew he was feeling vulnerable and asked what she could do, then kissed him, his reply of "you can get my attorney on the phone and we can't do this" with a look of bewildered disbelief on his face made me bust out laughing. -- About that letter: Cutler wrote the letter and signed the other partners' names to it WITHOUT TELLING THEM?? Even those not a fan of Don's weren't going to like being undermined without so much as a "by your leave." -- Julio is moving?? Poor Peggy. ... Julio: I don't want to go to Newark!! Peggy: No one does. ... ::snort:: -- Seriously, Megan? Don tells you he's probably going to get fired and you drop the bomb that the marriage is over with a half-annoyed, half-exasperated "Don..."? I will *never* figure her out. -- I loved the way they showed all the characters watching the moon landing, where ever they were. That kind of national amazement is something I'm not sure I remember in my lifetime. -- Holy. Crap. Cooper is DEAD??? At least he went happy, watching the moon landing... -- Wait. Sally got all prettied up because she is interested in the *middle* son?? I did NOT see that coming! -- Oh my heart: Don telling Peggy that if she wins Burger Chef by presenting instead of him, then the account is hers and she can stand on that if he gets let go, rather than working so hard to land the account on his presentation and risking losing it all. --  I have to give props to Roger, standing up in the wake of Burt's unexpected passing and finding a vision and being the leader Burt didn't think he could be for his company. Selling the firm to the competition on the condition that Don stays and luring the other partners in with millions of dollars for their bank accounts. A subsidiary, keeping SCP offices, name, clients, the works. It almost sounds too good to be true. p.s. You should have signed that partner contract while the offer stood, Harry! -- Goosebumps: Peggy's Burger Chef presentation. "That table is your battlefield and your prize." "We're starving...and not just for dinner." "There may be chaos at home, but there's family supper at Burger Chef." -- What is Joan's deal with Don? I know he screwed up, but has she forgotten he was the only one who didn't pimp her out to Jaguar and was appalled when the others did?? Yet she doesn't have even an ounce of loyalty. -- That speech Don gave Ted about what it's like to walk away and see what happens when you crash and burn. Wow. -- What an ending, that "vision" Don had of Burt singing "The Best Things in Life Are Free." I wonder where we go from here when we pick it back up for the final seven episodes next year...