Reviews and More

I’ve been watching Cold Case for several years now, and even though I don’t post about it on this site, it’s one of my favorite shows. Well, at least it used to be one of my favorites. Recently, however, it’s becoming far too repetitive and the characters seem to be stuck in a rut. So now I’m considering whether I should even bother watching it anymore.

For example, in the most recent episode that aired on Sunday night, the victim died after being pushed down a flight of stairs. By someone he knew. In a fit of passion/anger. Are you kidding me? How many times has this happened on the show? From watching Cold Case, I’d think that staircase deaths are more common than anything else in Philly! I mean, it’s truly laughable how many of these vics die from falls.

And how about the characters? None of them have made significant strides (in terms of development, maturity, growth, etc.) since Season 1. Lilly Rush is still an emotionally unavailable loner who has no time for a personal life. Instead, she seems content to hole up in her apartment with her cats night after night. You know things aren’t right when someone has more cat furniture than friends, and that’s pretty much where Lilly stands right now. There’s a lot that the writers could do with her, but so far nothing has happened in this area.

Ditto for Scotty, Nick, Jeffries, and Stillman. None of them have had significant character arcs since Season 1, which I find odd in a primetime series. I suppose Nick comes closest, as he did go through a divorce and that period of dating his neighbor. But overall, there’s very little difference character-wise between a Season 1 episode and a Season 5 episode.

I suppose this would be ok if the cases were interesting, but like I said above, those are getting repetitive now as well.

I used to think that Cold Case was one of the best shows on TV, back in Seasons 1 and 2. Now, however, I’m thinking of dropping it from my viewing lineup altogether.

(CBS promotional photo)

The last time I posted a How I Met Your Mother recap, I mistakenly wrote that the show would be on hiatus until the writers’ strike got resolved. I guess there are still a few more new eps in the can, because we got one last night. It was called “The Platinum Rule”, and employed many of the gimmicks that HIMYM viewers have grown to love: more dating rules from Barney, seamless time-shifting to show events that happened at different points in the past, and Ted going on a date with someone who may or may not end up being his wife in the year 2030.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): In the first episode of the season, you’ll recall that Ted, in a moment of extreme drunkenness, decided to get a tattoo on his lower back (just above his butt crack). After pissing off the tattoo artist, he ended up with a butterfly, which his friends promptly dubbed a “tramp stamp”. In this ep, he’s beginning the laser removal process, which requires 10 very expensive sessions with one of New York City’s finest doctors, a woman named Stella.

Then Ted announces to everyone that he’s going out on a date with Stella, which prompts protests from the entire gang, especially Barney. He tells Ted that going out with Stella is in direct violation of the Platinum Rule, which essentially says that you shouldn’t date someone that you see on a regular basis in case things don’t work out. Barney then trots out the eight stages of the Platinum Rule, which are: Attraction, Bargaining, Submission, Perks, the Tipping Point, Purg — “wait for it, for eternity!” — atory, Confrontation, and Fallout.

Of course, these rules are useless without examples, so we get flashbacks of Barney, Marshall & Lily, and Robin all breaking the Platinum Rule at various times in their lives, with disastrous results. Ted listens to all this, but doesn’t change his mind about Stella. Later on, however, we learn that they can’t date anyway because of ethical considerations (doctor-patient, and all that). Voiceover Ted also says that there’s a ninth stage: Coexistence — which might indicate that this Stella character (who we never actually saw) could turn up in future episodes.

My Reaction: I thought this was an okay episode. It certainly wasn’t an instant classic like “Slap Bet”, but it wasn’t too bad either. I liked the fact that all the action took place in Ted’s apartment (I’ve said many times before that the show is better when it focuses on just the core group), with flashbacks to complement the main story.

In addition, I thought the writers did a fairly good job of incorporating Robin into the storyline without making her seem like an afterthought. This group is composed of five people, but ever since Robin and Ted broke up, even the writers have been treating Robin like an intrusion.

I giggled at how much time Ted spent on his hair, and laughed when Marshall silently passed Barney a tissue to wipe off after tousling Ted’s ‘do.

Other than that, I can’t really think of anything else that stood out in this episode. I don’t know what the broadcast schedule is, so I’m not even going to guess (seeing as I was wrong the last time). I’ll just post another recap whenever the show airs!