Dexter Season 4 Review: A Most Unholy Trinity

After an unspectacular season 3 marred by muddled plotting, pointless B-stories, and Jimmy Smits redefining the art of scenery chewing, Showtime’s venerable “Serial Killer With a Heart of Gold” drama Dexter returned a changed show brimming with suspense, character evolution, and the most horrifying villain ever to menace the small screen. Those B-stories though? Still hecka pointless.

Season 4 found Dexter uncomfortably adjusting to life in the suburbs with a wife & baby. Dating sweet single mom Rita may have started out as just a cover story to mask Dex’s nighttime hobby, but family life started to feel right for the self proclaimed soulless monster. Campouts and extra-nosy neighborhood watch folk made for some amusing stealth scenarios, but the heart of Dexter’s study in family life would come from a surprising and sinister mentor.

Enter John Lithgow as the Trinity Killer, a terrifyingly prolific murderer whose expertly crafted backstory was made even better in a series of tantalizing one piece at a time reveals. The season took delight in building, peaking, and unraveling a dynamic portrait of a man sick and damaged enough to constantly reenact his childhood through the death of strangers yet self aware and canny enough to build a near perfect social artifice. And the depictions of his ritualistic cycle of kills would be enough to haunt and sicken even a jaded veteran of Creative Serial Killer Theater (that means you, Silence of the Lambs and CSI).

Dexter and Trinity crossed paths thanks to the welcome return of Keith Carradine as FBI vet Frank Lundy, last seen in season 2 as an age inappropriate boyfriend for Dexter’s sister Deb. Frank may have retired, but he won’t hang up his gun without locking up the one killer smart enough to make most agents think he doesn’t exist. The season also makes room for some time suck rambling about a handful of illicit affairs among Miami’s finest, but that’s been an unfortunate par for the course through the entire series. Makes a good case for the viability of commercials, because Dexter would be even better at the lean 40-45 minutes the average network drama actually clocks in at. The lone standout side story revolves around Deb’s quest for intel on the seedy private life of Harry, the late father she once considered heroic. Fans know that too much digging will lead her straight into Dexter’s own tragic origin story– Harry was a cop who adopted Dexter after the bloody murder of Dex’s biological mom, Harry’s stool pigeon mistress.

I won’t ruin any more story details for those loyal fans who wait for DVD, but suffice it to say that Dexter season 4 represents 12 of 2009’s finest hours of television and features an ending so shocking that I simultaneously felt like I’d never want to watch again, yet somehow needed season 5 to start right away. That’s just the kind of power it holds.

Dexter, Season 4, Showtime

For more television reviews, click here.

Photographs courtesy of Showtime and Randy Tepper.

Disney’s Princess is Back!

In the tradition of Disney princesses, Tiana of The Princess and The Frog is both conventional and unconventional at the same time. The movie is loosely based on the Brothers Grimm’s fairytale The Frog Prince and E.D. Baker’s novel The Frog Princess. Disney’s version is set in 1920’s New Orleans, where jazz was rampant and it was the wealthiest city in the south.

The film begins by introducing us to our heroine, a young Tiana who belongs to a working class family but finds herself visiting the wealthier side of town. Her mother is a talented dressmaker whose clients include the daughter of one of the richest men in the city. In the first scene we are taken inside a beautiful fairytale looking room with a four poster bed, dolls everywhere, and it looks very much like the room of a young princess. When we finally meet our characters though, Tiana is simply inside the room of Lottie, the young wealthy client of her mother Eudora. Eudora, who is voiced by Oprah Winfrey, is telling the two girls the story of a princess who kissed a frog thereby turning him back into a prince. Spoiled Lottie automatically enthralled by the story and dreams of kissing her own prince one day as she prances around her princess dress courtesy of Eudora. Tiana on the other hand is disgusted by the idea of kissing a frog and proclaims that she will never do it. She is dressed in much simpler clothes, though she does have a little crown on her head. Lottie proceeds to put a frog hat on her cat and tries to force Tiana to kiss it, which traumatizes the poor animal and was hilarious to watch.

Tiana as the daughter of a working class family has no allusions of princes and fairytales. Her dream is to become a chef and open a restaurant and through hard work and perseverance. Nineteen years later, she remains diligent and determined as she works multiple jobs and multiple shifts just to save money to buy an old sugar mill her father and her imagined to one day open their restaurant in. In contrast we meet the spoiled Prince Naveen who comes to New Orleans to marry Lottie for her money after being cut off by his parents for his spendthrift and playboy lifestyle. He is broke and is looking for the easy way out by finding a rich bride.

Our villain is the scheming Dr. Facilier, a voodoo witch doctor who is bent on controlling New Orleans for his own evil purposes. He apparently has made a deal with those on the mysterious “other side” that gives him his power. Facilier tricks Naveen and his valet Lawrence into coming into his shop where the prince is transformed into a frog. He seduces Lawrence into playing Naveen (via the prince’s blood inside a talisman) so that he can marry Lottie and then they can split the cash after killing Big Daddy La Bouff (Lottie’s dad).

On the night of a grand masquerade ball at the La Bouffs’, Naveen escapes and runs into Tiana dressed in a beautiful ball gown inside Lottie’s room. She is depressed after just learning that someone has outbid her for the sugar mill. He convinces her that he will give her money in exchange for a kiss and she finally forces herself to do it, only to be turned into a frog herself. Naveen had thought she was a princess in her clothes while Tiana protests that it was a costume and that she was a waitress. After a chase scene with the La Bouffs’ dog Stella, our two protagonists find themselves stranded in the bayou with alligators eying them for dinner. Speaking of alligators, they meet Louis who Naveen initially befriends because of their common love of jazz. Louis tells them about Mama Odie, an old blind voodoo priestess who might be able to reverse the spell and turn Tiana and Naveen back into humans. The prince convinces the alligator to help them by suggesting that he could turn into a human as well then he could play the trumpet in front of people and not scare them away. They also meet Ray, an old Cajun firefly who points them to the right direction to Mama Odie. It turns out though the only way to truly break the spell is for Naveen to kiss a princess. This works out that he must kiss Lottie before midnight as her dad is the king of Mardi gras and thus makes her a legitimate princess for the night.

*Spoiler Alert* All’s well that ends well; Naveen and Tiana fall in love, Facilier is defeated, and even Louis and Ray get their happy endings. The core message of the movie is realizing the difference between what you want and what you need. It shines a light on what is actually important in life, which is love of family and friends.

What I liked about the film first and foremost is that Disney went back to its roots of hand drawn animation. While the animated films that have come out of Disney/Pixar collaboration have been amazing CGI work, I grew up watching Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin (and many more) so I absolutely loved this old school feel. I also appreciated that the prince was just as much as the protagonist as Tiana and he went through character changes as well from spoiled and irresponsible to generous and selfless. Tiana went through her own shift as she discovered that a life without someone to share it with wasn’t complete. I thought the message of the movie was that you should still dream and wish upon a star, but you had to work for it too. Then there was also the “you may not get what you expected though it turns out even better than you could have imagined” theme as well.

Before the movie came out there was a lot of mixed expectations, but I found it entertaining and enjoyable to watch. Will there be critics getting upset that the wealthy family is portrayed as Caucasian while working class Tiana is African American? Perhaps. I think you can argue it either way where Disney was portraying it as realistically as they could, or that it could reinforce negative racial stereotypes. Though this viewer just had a great time seeing characters triumph over challenges, elaborate musical montages, and talking animals.

It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia: A Very Sunny Xmas DVD

Is there such a thing as good holiday entertainment? That is the question I ask myself every year around this time, and folks, it’s a mixed bag. Sure, I love myself some original Miracle on 34^th Street, and nothing gets me in an introspective holiday mood quite like It’s a Wonderful Life. Attempted suicide followed by a life changing epiphany, and ANGELS (!); c’mon that screams Christmas. Oh, and let’s not even get started on A Christmas Carol and perhaps my favorite adaptation of it, Scrooged staring Bill Murray. Seriously, if you haven’t seen it, get on that. Add it to your Netflix Queue right now. Anyway, my point being that for every Charlie Brown Christmas there’s a horrible Jeff Dunham’s Very Special Christmas Special. So of course I was ecstatic when the gang over at Sunny decided to compile their shenanigans into a straight to DVD holiday extravaganza.

I don’t want to spoil too much, but I will give you an idea of what to expect. Frank tries to impart the true meaning of Christmas on Dennis and Dee with a little trick he likes to call “the fake out”. Dennis and Dee decide to arrange a visit from a ghost of Frank’s past in order to make him see what a jerk he’s become, with some *ahem* interesting results. Meanwhile, Mac and Charlie filled to the brim with Christmas spirit (and eggnog) share their oh so special family traditions with each other only realize they’re not traditions at all and might involve stealing and prostitution. Charlie goes all “Raging Bull” on a mall Santa, and someone gets sewn into a couch. Filled with flashbacks, you’ll get to see the gang as kids, giving us a little insight as to how these people became so utterly screwed up. There’s also a fantastic Rankin & Bass-inspired claymation musical number featuring some “racist raisins” and over the top violence, as well as some good ol’ fashioned nudity.

So, if you’re looking for another stocking stuffer for your Sunny fan, or just looking to start a holiday tradition of your own; do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia: A Very Sunny Christmas. Trust me, it sure beats the heck out of throwing rocks at trains.

Fun Facts/Random Observations:

-For all those fans of The Wire, be on the look out for Nicky Sobotka.

-Nicky Sobotka is played by one Pablo Schreiber, half brother to one Liev Schreiber. Pass that completely useful tidbit to your friends. Pay it forward.

-Although the extras are thin, enjoy some pretty funny deleted scenes of young Mac and Charlie. It explains A LOT.

For more on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, click here.

Thursdays at 10pm on FX

Photographs courtesy of FX and IMDbPro

Real Housewives of Orange County: Seriously?

Just curious, what year is it? Judging by the prehistoric way that Tamra and Alexis’ husbands treat them, I could’ve sworn it was the Stone Age. Making matters worse, since there are two controlling jacka**es they obviously think that this type of behavior is totally fine – misery (and idiocy) clearly love company.

One husband who seems to be slightly less ridiculous is Lynne’s man, who endured the simultaneous plastic surgery of his wife and his daughter this week. I felt so badly for him, he was pacing back and forth worrying about his girls. Luckily they both came out of surgery safely, and it appears that Lynne might have even been swapped out in the operating room for a younger, hotter version of herself (plastic, granted, but younger). Usually I think facelifts are a waste of time, but Lynne’s face literally lost 15 years – totally worth the money. Not sure if it was worth the pain, though, as Lynne mumbled incoherently while coming out of sedation and her face looked like it was wrapped in a big white gauze turban. Her daughter Raquel should’ve gotten an attitude transplant while she was getting her nose job; she came out of the procedure sounding positively bratty as she gushed about how good she looked with her new nose. I wonder how she feels about the fact that her mom looks better than her now…

Gretchen hit up motorcycle driving school so that she could be certified to ride the enormous pink bike that Jeff bought her before he died. She said it had taken her a long time to be ready to consider the bike again, but when she got into the class she didn’t exactly seem like the thoughtful widow. She was cracking jokes and goofing around with the guys in her class, while Slade looked like he wanted to build an invisible fence around her. Hands off, other dudes. Too bad she learned how to ride on the motorcycle equivalent of a child’s Hot Wheels toy – wait until you ride your bike, Gretchen, there’s only about a 700 lb difference.

Then she hit up lunch with Tamra to try and make peace before they went on the “girls’ trip” to Florida that Vicki planned for them (more on that later, oy…). Gretchen insisted that she wasn’t fooling around on Jeff with another man before he died (everyone has photos of men with their heads up their skirts, duh Tamra!) and Tamra said she could only be friends if Gretchen removed a nasty blog posting about her from her website. What is it with the Barneys and website apologies? First Simon demands a Facebook apology from Tamra’s son and now this – I’m sure that says something about the state of technology taking over for genuine feelings, but mainly I think it just proves they’re both idiots. Either way, the dust has far from settled between Tamra and Gretchen, so the Florida trip is sure to see some drama (yay!).

Meanwhile, Alexis and Tamra had to get permission from their husbands to go on vacation with the girls to Florida, which of course they wouldn’t allow. I don’t know what’s creepier, the fact that these men are dead serious when they talk about what their wives can and cannot do, or the fact that the women listen and obey. Alexis definitely takes the cake for being the craziest housewife, as evidenced by the non-stop stream of insanity that flows out of her mouth every week. While out to lunch with Gretchen, she called Jim “godly” (excuse me while I throw up on my keyboard) and then explained that the only way to keep the devil (aka temptation) out of their marriage is to not eat, have enormous implants and go for bi-weekly Botox sessions. Right, I think that’s definitely what God had in mind when he made adultery a mortal sin. PS, Alexis if you’re 32 I’m Gisele Bundchen, nice try. At least Simon keeps Tamra’s leash a wee bit longer, since he recently let her return to work in real estate – but only with one of his friends overseeing her.

The decision about Florida was ultimately that the ladies could only go if their husbands went with them. And the women agreed. Why am I not shocked? I guess this is the type of behavior I’d expect from someone like Alexis who brought her two young daughters to get mani-pedis this week and was surprised that the babies cried and hated every second of it. Alexis might’ve been able to ignore their obvious terror and wailing cries as they sat in the salon, but I’m pretty sure the women who work there (and oh, say, every patron in the room) couldn’t block it out. Awesome parenting, Alexis, I hope I have five just like them one day.

On the Vicki front, she hit the jewelry store to buy Don a ring for their 15^th wedding anniversary. I’m not sure if she thinks she’s married to Don Corleone or Don Gunvalson, because the ring she picked out for him was bling that only the Godfather could pull off. I really hope Vicki’s jeweler is a friend of hers, since the woman cracked jokes about Vicki being a b*tch while they shopped, ha. Then Vicki went on a date with her man and he told her how shocked the other husbands were that he wouldn’t be chaperoning his wife on the Florida trip. I felt badly for Don actually, clearly their marriage has had its ups and downs but at least he trusts his wife. While on their golf outing Simon and Jim practically mocked Don for not wanting to go on the girls’ trip. Jerks. I’m pretty sure we’re only an episode or two away from Jim and Simon putting their wives in those baby leash harnesses and making them walk behind them. One thing is for certain, Vicki’s trip hasn’t even happened yet and already it’s out of hand. I hope Alexis and Tamra packed bikinis with prison stripes on them…

For another take on this week’s episode, check out Next Week on the Real Housewives… by Liz Cooper.

Season 5, Episode 5: Friends, Facelifts and Florida (originally aired December 10, 2009)

For more on The Real Housewives of Orange County, click here.

Thursdays at 10/9c on Bravo

Photographs courtesy of NBC Universal, Tony Avelar

The Real Housewives of Orange County: Next Week on the Real Housewives…

This week on Real Housewives, the scene was set for the inevitable bitch storm next week in Florida. Vicki’s plan to have a girl’s vacay has been turned into a couples retreat, since Alexis and Tamra aren’t allowed beyond a 50 mile radius without their husbands.

Alexis is ridiculous. I think she might have a few screws missing upstairs. She thought that it would be a great idea to take her very small daughters for their first mani-pedi. Come on Alexis, not all children are Suri Cruise. Shock, the kids hate it and the staff at the nail place definitely hate Alexis for her terrible idea. We get some insight into the world that is Alexis when she goes out to lunch with Gretchen since she is new to the group and stupidly thinks that the way to get in with the in crowd is through the most hated housewife. Alexis reminds us at lunch that she is only 32, even though her years of Botox beg to differ. Anywho, she tells Gretchen that she never travels without her husband (just to set up how disastrous this FL trip is going to be) and talks about how she is from the Midwest and is very traditional, and she and Jim clicked because of their solid Christian values and mutual hatred for the devil. She says that the trust in their relationship is so strong that she would trust him naked on a boat with Gretchen, yet she would never ever travel without him. Uhhh, ok.

We get more of Alexis later in the episode when she goes to her biyearly Botox treatment. Man, life is hard for a 32-year-old. You know she is 32 right? At 27 she only had to go get Botox once a year, but now that she is the big 3-2 it has to be twice. Apparently Jim loves Botox and doesn’t want to grow old with a frumpy wife, but an expressionless one is fine as long as they travel together. I cannot stress how excited I am for Alexis or Jim to snap and/or suffer the wrath of Vicki.

I’m also excited for the Tamra-Simon-Vicki bomb to explode next week. Tamra is supposed to do whatever Simon says, and he thinks that they have the perfect relationship that way. Tamra clearly doesn’t and wants to be more independent, hence going back to work showing houses. She says that her real estate boss is an easier boss than Simon, which is just kind of depressing. I keep feeling really bad for Tamra, between her bad son and her blah husband.

But that doesn’t last long. Fast forward to her peace offering lunch with Gretchen, which is so fake I feel like I’m back in the seventh grade. The purpose of this lunch is to move on, but it is really for both parties to dig their heels into the ground a little harder. They both claim the other is lying and want apologies for what has been said and neither agrees on anything. Mission accomplished (for more drama in Florida).

And finally for the comedic relief: Lynne and her mother-daughter plastic surgery treat. Don’t you see how cute it is that they will be in recovery together? Me neither. So Lynne is there for a face, neck and brow lift and Raquel is there for a birthday nose job. I’m starting to think that Lynne’s daughter Alexa is the only rational person on this show, since she thinks that plastic surgery is a bad solution for problems and her sister and mother are basically crazy. Come on Alexa get on the boat, there is no price for happiness. Even in this economy! By the time Lynne is in recovery and looking like the marshmallow man with a helmet of gauze and inaudible ramblings coming out of her taut face, Raquel goes in for the nose job and I have to turn away after seeing the tools. Ouch. Two days after surgery and ahhhhhhhhhahaha, Lynne looks like…not a human. Welcome to Madame Tussaud’s. Raquel is actually a really great daughter because she keeps telling her mom how great she looks, when a lesser girl would break down in tears and run away claiming alien abduction.

So this episode is just to look forward to next week: Lynne’s new face, Tamra’s freak out, Vicki’s freak out, Gretchen being inappropriate with Slade, another Tamra freak out, a Simon freak out, and Alexis will be fanning Jim with a palm leaf. While on the elliptical. Woot woot!

For another take on this episode, check out Seriously? by Renata Sellitti.

Season 5, Episode 5: Friends, Facelifts and Florida (originally aired December 10, 2009)

For more on The Real Housewives of Orange County, click here.

Thursdays at 10/9c on Bravo

Photographs courtesy of NBC Universal, Tony Avelar

SUNDAY, 13th (Week of Dec 13 – 19)

OPRAH’S CHRISTMAS AT THE WHITE HOUSE: But the important question is – how much screentime will Bo get?! He IS America’s first dog, after all. (10pm/ABC)

MONDAY, 14th

JENNIFER HUDSON, I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS: This year it’s mandatory that each ‘Idol’ alum host their own Xmas special. Rumor has it Sanjaya’s next. (8pm/ABC)

TUESDAY, 15th

GORDON RAMSEY, COOK-ALONG LIVE : I hope fire departments across the country are ready! They’ll be receiving a lot of calls tonight when viewers end up burning down their kitchens. Just saying. (9pm/FOX)

WEDNESDAY, 16th

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE: Whoever wins tonight was apparently right in thinking they can dance. Sorry, but this show’s long title has always bugged me. (8pm/FOX)

THURSDAY, 17th

SNL PRESENTS A VERY GILLY CHRISTMAS :  A look back at some of the funniest Xmas-themed Saturday Night Live skits with some new ones featuring Gilly. Um, yay? (8pm/NBC)

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