Last night’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy was called “In the Midnight Hour”, and was actually pretty good — if you choose to ignore the whole Izzie/Denny storyline, which is just too stupid for words right now. I mean, Izzie is having audible sex with a freakin’ ghost? All I can do is pretend that didn’t happen and simply pay attention to the rest of the show. Fortunately, there were a few other good things going on.
– I think Mark Sloan might now be my favorite character on Grey’s. He has totally grown on me in the last season or two (I hated him when he first arrived in Seattle), and is probably the most consistently likable guy in the hospital. He even makes Derek more interesting: that supply closet scene with Little Grey was funny, and the fact that we learned how Derek’s mom made Derek take Mark in when they were boys (because Mark’s parents weren’t around) was awesome. And letting that girl lean on his shoulder to sleep? Total “awww” moment there!
– This current crop of interns is just all kinds of crazy. Why would they think it would be a good idea to practice surgeries on each other, and why aren’t their residents around to supervise them? Don’t you think Cristina as an intern would have been a much more likely candidate to perform an appendectomy on a fellow intern than Lexipedia? And yet Yang never did anything that stupid because Bailey was always around. It just goes to show that all of these guys suck at being residents, and despite the chief’s lecture about being better teachers, nobody has taken his words to heart.
– I liked the scene where Bailey looked at Alex, Meredith, Cristina, and George and told them that she’s not making a speech to their interns for them. The whole thing about how they were Bailey’s babies and she’s done raising them was pretty cool, and made me think about early seasons and how young these guys were, how little they knew back then. They really have grown up, and while I don’t agree that Bailey has “raised” them right (they have ALL broken the rules or failed in some big way), the sentiment in that scene was nice. Maybe I just miss old Grey’s….
– Why did Derek have to take in a stray? Has Lexipedia left her apartment or something? Is she no longer going to live with George? I can’t believe she’s still in love with that clueless idiot. Although I thought she was stupid for going through with that unauthorized appi, I liked her George smackdown when she said that was the first thing in a long time that wasn’t done as an attempt to get him to notice her.
– I read somewhere that Denny might be around until February sweeps. Oh, please God, NO!!!!
Private Practice 2×06 — “Serving Two Masters”: Some parts of this ep were good, but others were just… meh. I don’t like how Shonda Rhimes uses the exact same approach here as she does on Grey’s Anatomy as far as having the patients of the week reflect the issues that the main characters are going through in their lives. For instance, that elderly black couple was obviously supposed to call to mind Sam and Naomi, and Naomi’s speech at the end about how the husband will always love the wife but nevertheless has to move on was obviously the impetus for Sam to say he’s ready to start dating again. It’s just so heavy-handed to have stuff like this happen week after week. That being said, I’m a sucker for older couples who profess their undying love for each other, and have to admit that I teared up a bit when the wife woke up from her surgery!
Bones 4×10 — “The Passenger in the Oven”: This was a pretty good ep, though not as strong as the last one. I enjoyed having Booth and Brennan outside of the Jeffersonian for the entire episode, and trying to solve the murder with improvised tools was pretty fun. I also thought the final sequence, with Booth trying to convince the D.A. to sign the arrest warrant before the plane touched down in Shanghai was awesome! Bones usually doesn’t bring suspense or tension, so that scene had a really different feel to it.
House 5×08 — “Emancipation”: This episode veered from the typical one-case formula, and I actually liked it. It’s not something I’d want to see every week, mind you, but it was a nice change of pace. Plus, it was good to see Foreman actually being a doctor rather than just sitting around giving House admonishing looks. He’s supposed to be a first-class neurosurgeon or something, right? It’s odd to have him doing nothing all the time.
Entourage 5×11 — “Play’n with Fire”: Hey, Turtle’s real name was revealed: it’s Sal! On most Entourage-related forums that I read, fans don’t really like this character because he’s the one true hanger-on in the group. But I’ve always had a soft spot for him because he’s the only one who seems like a genuinely nice guy who would go to bat for his friends in any situation. It was cool to see him being appreciated by Jamie-Lynn Sigler… who is surprisingly likable as “herself” on this show. Hopefully the writers will stick with that.
I swore off the Hannah Swensen mystery series by Joanne Fluke after the third installment, Blueberry Muffin Murder. I found everything about these novels to be cringe-worthy, from the patently obvious “mystery” solution to the god-awful dialogue, two-dimensional characters, and generally poor plot development. 
Last night’s episode of How I Met Your Mother was called “Wooo” and was actually pretty funny for a change. I haven’t been overly impressed by recent HIMYM eps, so I wasn’t expecting too much out of this one, but it was good for several laughs. Here’s what happened:
Last night’s episode of Desperate Housewives was called “City on Fire”, and was supposed to be the show’s big entry for November sweeps. The way it was promoted, viewers were led to believe that someone close to Susan would die in the big fire or that some characters we “know” would die. Plus, we were supposed to find out for sure who Dave has been targeting all this time. Unfortunately, the whole thing was pretty lame — and was still rather vague for a show that was supposed to be so full of answers.
No surprises this weekend, as Quantum of Solace, the second James Bond film with Daniel Craig as the super agent, earned a whopping $70.4 million in its North American debut. Though not as widely praised as its 2006 predecessor Casino Royale, fans still flocked to the film in droves, pushing last week’s box office champ, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa into second place with a healthy $36.1 million haul. The animated film has now grossed more than $100 million since its initial release.
I’m not a huge fan of the James Bond series, but I was extremely impressed with Casino Royale, which was the first film in which Daniel Craig took over the lead role. That was an excellent film in my estimation, and featured all of the elements I look for in a Bond film, including action, humor, intelligence, and a good Bond girl. 
I generally enjoy stories of young people trying to establish an identity for themselves as they come of age, so despite the apprehension I felt about The Secret Life of Bees being too much of a “chick flick” for my tastes, I went to see it with a group of female friends on a recent Girls’ Night Out. The film ended up being a lot more interesting and engaging than I expected it to be, and yet it wasn’t wholly enjoyable because of the pat ending that wrapped everything up a bit too neatly.