Read on for Johnni’s recap of Once Upon A Time 2×21, “Second Star to the Right,” aired Sunday, May 5th, 2013:
This week answers a question that I think we have all been waiting to have answered: Where did Bae land when he left Fairy Tale Land? The answer: London, England! And that is where we begin in this episode of Once Upon A Time.
After being separated from his father, Bae lands in London, where he becomes another homeless child—so sad. One day he sneaks into a rich home and starts to eat all the bread, but he is caught by the owner’s daughter, Wendy Darling. Yep, the Wendy from the classic Peter Pan tale we all know. Too bad this version doesn’t end happily ever after.
When we cut back to present day Storybrooke, Tamara is “training” for a marathon (which actually means helping Greg torture Regina), while Rumplestiltskin has embraced his evil side and doesn’t mind showing off for Lacey (Belle). Meanwhile, Charming, Snow, Emma and Henry discover that Regina is missing and the magic beans she stole are gone too. At that moment, in a secret location, Greg is trying to torture Regina into telling him what happened to his father, but she is a badass and won’t tell him anything. read more…
Photo Credit: PBS.
On Saturday, my friend Kyle returned to the podcast, this time to talk about Downton Abbey. He recently marathoned the entire series on DVD. Fair warning: We discussed major plot points from the series, so don’t listen unless you’re caught up. Topics of discussion included Downton‘s attitude toward progress, the question of whether the show is “a consequence free environment,” Maggie Smith’s awesomeness, and more. I have a cold, so please excuse my voice–I think my medicine was wearing off by the end of the episode. Beginning at the 1:30:30 mark, we switched topics to a more general TV discussion. I helped Kyle plan his future television marathoning schedule, while he convinced me to start Breaking Bad. Update: I’m halfway through season 2 now, so he was right! You can listen to the podcast on the player below, download the MP3, or subscribe via iTunes.
Read on for Johnni’s recap of Once Upon A Time episode 2×20, “The Evil Queen,” aired Sunday, April 28th, 2013:
Evil is coming … and it isn’t in the form of the Evil Queen! This week’s episode is full of darkness and destruction and the outsiders are to blame. Let’s dive in!
We pick up in Storybrooke, as Hook is being held prisoner by Tamara and Greg. Hook thinks Rumple is dead, but quickly discovers that he survived the stab wound and loses it. Greg makes him an offer: if Hook helps find his father, Greg will help him kill Rumple once and for all. Yikes!
In the first flashback, the Evil Queen is searching the local villages for any sign of Snow White. When there is no sign of her, she rounds up the villagers and asks them where Snow went. No one comes forward, so she orders them to all be killed! After the Queen realizes that no one will tell her where Snow is, she turns to Rumple for help. He agrees to shift her into a peasant so that she can find Snow on her own. She won’t have any powers this way, but the Queen doesn’t care. She will kill Snow with her bare hands! So intense. read more…
I have joined the staff of Variety Radio Online … and I may have forgotten to tell you guys. The VRO has been around since 2008, so you may already know all about it. If not, let me fill you in. Featuring weekly live recaps and interviews, The VRO is one of the highest rated radio shows on the BlogTalkRadio Network. Founded by Amy McCracken (@AmyVRO), this fan-driven site has evolved over the past 4 years to cover a variety of television programs, and you can read more about its history here. In the fall, I posted a couple links to our Sons of Anarchy recaps, but now my involvement with The VRO has expanded.
I have been recapping The Following all season, with Amy and Tash (@80sRebelGirl). Thanks to Amy’s hard work, we have had the chance to interview Marcos Siega, Executive Producer on The Following (and formerly of The Vampire Diaries), and Joshua Butler, director of 3 episodes of The Following (and much, much more). Earlier this year, I was able to join Amy and Nat (@agirlnamednat) for their Pretty Little Liars show. Also, Tash and I have teamed up with Tiffany (@Angelized_1st) for a weekly Scandal show, which has been a total blast. And now, I am also co-hosting a Game of Thrones recap show with Nadia (@NadiaBunny88). It’s a lot, I know. So I’m providing a list of links to these shows, for anyone interested. Also, you can subscribe via iTunes, if you don’t want to miss an episode. We thank you for listening! And think about calling-in to one of our live shows when you have a chance, because we always love hearing from you.
The Following interviews
The Following season 1 recap shows
- The Following — Pilot
- The Following — Chapter 2
- The Following — Mad Love
- The Following — The Fall
- The Following — Let Me Go
- The Following — Welcome Home & Love Hurts
- The Following — The Curse
- The Following — The End Is Near
- The Following — The Final Chapter (Live this Sunday at 7pm ET!)
Scandal season 2 recap shows
- Scandal — Boom Goes the Dynamite
- Scandal — Top of the Hour
- Scandal — Snake in the Garden
- Scandal — Molly, You’re in Danger, Girl
- Scandal — Seven Fifty-Two
- Scandal — A Woman Scorned (Live this Saturday at 5pm ET!)
Game of Thrones season 3 recap shows
- Game of Thrones — Valar Dohaeris
- Game of Thrones — Queen of Thorns
- Game of Thrones — Walk of Punishment (Live this Friday at 7pm ET!)
Pretty Little Liars season 3 recap shows
- Pretty Little Liars — She’s Better Now
- Pretty Little Liars — Misery Loves Company
- Pretty Little Liars — Dead to Me
- Pretty Little Liars — What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted
- Pretty Little Liars — Hot Water
- Pretty Little Liars — Out of Sight, Out of Mind
- Pretty Little Liars — Will the Circle Be Unbroken
- Pretty Little Liars — I’m Your Puppet
- Pretty Little Liars — A Dangerous gAme
Sons of Anarchy season 5 recap shows
- Sons of Anarchy — Season 5 Premiere & Episode 2
- Sons of Anarchy — Season 5 Episode 3
- Sons of Anarchy — Season 5 Episode 4
- Sons of Anarchy — Season 5 Episode 5
- Sons of Anarchy — Season 5 Episode 6
- Sons of Anarchy — Season 5 Episodes 7 & 8
- Sons of Anarchy — Andare Pescare
- Sons of Anarchy — To Thine Own Self & Darthy
- Sons of Anarchy — J’ai Obtenu Cette
- Sons of Anarchy — J’ai Obtenu Cette, Part 2
The Heroine TV Podcast is back, this time with a super-sized Buffy and Angel episode. LaToya (@lafergs)–of All the TV, Pretty Little Liars Annotations, and Offscreenville–joined me to discuss our Jossy obsessions. Do you want to listen to a Whedonesque therapy session, between two Buffy and Angel fans as they discuss what they love and hate about their two favorite shows? And try to work through the pain of “Seeing Red,” Cordy’s hair, and that Connor-Cordy scene that we pretend never happened? Then click play. You can listen to the podcast on the player below, download the MP3, or subscribe via iTunes.
We start off with a general discussion of TV, weighing in on Pretty Little Liars, Bunheads, Hart of Dixie, The Carrie Diaries, Defiance, Warehouse 13, Elementary, Southland, and more. Yes, we watch a lot of television. The Buffy and Angel discussion starts in earnest at the 21:54 mark, and does contain spoilers for those two shows if you are unfortunate enough not to have watched them. (If you know nothing of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel, please contact a trusted professional as soon as possible, to get the help you so desperately need. We are here for you.) As for the Whedon veterans, our discussion includes how we got into Buffy, our season and show rankings, favorite episodes and characters, least favorite episodes and characters, and a detailed history of Cordelia Chase’s hair. Oh, and lots of wig talk, obviously. I admitted to not liking Xander, while LaToya admitted to not liking Andrew. It was all very therapeutic. Enjoy!
Read on for Johnni’s recap of Once Upon A Time episode 2×19, “Lacey,” aired Sunday, April 21st, 2013:
Happy Birthday, dear Henry! This week’s episode starts off with a bang and a birthday wish for Henry, which results in him getting one gift from Gold’s shop. What does he pick? A magic wand, which Rumple shows him how to use by freezing him! He then kills Henry because of the Seer’s premonition—yikes! Okay, so it was all a dream, but pretty scary stuff don’t you think?
In real life Storybrooke, Rumple watches his son Bae play with his grandson Henry as Regina approaches. Rumple tells Regina that he is Henry’s grandfather and Regina freaks out (obviously). Rumple leaves her to pay Belle a visit at the hospital and explain his last phone call to her (the one where he was on his deathbed).
Belle still doesn’t know who she is but she does believe that Rumple means what he says—she can tell that there is truth about his love for her! Rumple asks for Belle’s help to bring out his good side, since she is the only one who has ever brought out the good in him, and in return he will try and help her remember who she is. Super cute. read more…
Read on for my pilot review of SyFy’s new drama Defiance, aired Monday, April 15th, 2013. What follows includes some discussion of plot points, but I tried to avoid revealing major twists or spoilers.
Last week, SyFy aired the two-hour premiere of its new original series, Defiance. Before a new episode airs tonight, I wanted to post my thoughts on the pilot. There has been a lot of buzz going into the premiere, including hotel-sized billboards at Comic-Con last year and a lot of press about the complementary game. None of that really gave me any sense of what the show would be, and I was a little nervous going into the pilot. But don’t fear, sci-fi fans, because I ended up impressed. Spaceships are back on SyFy, you guys! With awesome ladies in charge, to boot! More, please.
The premise of Defiance is as follows. In 2013, spaceships full of alien races arrived on Earth. The landscape was terraformed, changing it forever. There was a series of wars, which eventually ended by armistice, thanks to bravery of “The Defiant Few.” Now, it’s 2046, and as the tagline of the show states, it’s a new Earth, with new rules. Enter our characters. The story centers on Nolan (Grant Bowler) and Irisa (Stephanie Leonidas), a father and daughter who are trying to make their way in this new world, hoping to earn passage to Antarctica (which now is a beach-filled paradise, apparently). Of course, it’s tough to get a Mai-Tai-sipping happy ending when people are shooting at you, just because you’re trying to engage in a little petty thievery. Oh, and it only gets harder when the Dark Forest you’re traveling through is the same one that borders Hogwarts, full of dramatically enlarged spider-like creatures. Ick. Our outlaws/heroes are rescued by residents of the town of Defiance, formerly St. Louis, and quickly find themselves embroiled in the town drama. Intrigue, murder, romance, betrayal, and triumph ensue.
Defiance borrows from a variety of genres. On the one hand, it is defiantly science fiction (sorry, I had to), proudly featuring a bunch of alien races and futuristic technology. It does not shy away from what it is. Defiance is also post-apocalyptic, a sub-genre that has become increasingly popular with things like Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, The Hunger Games, and Revolution—rag tag groups of survivors, and all that stuff that I love. And like Firefly, it feels a bit like a space western; the town of Defiance could easily be located next door to Canton, or even a few miles from Deadwood. At the same time, there are also more modern pop culture references, including a Johnny Cash song and a quote from Kung Fu. Defiance is not set in our world, and yet it could be. read more…
FX’s new Cold War era drama, The Americans, has fully captivated me. Wigs! 80s music! Keri Russell beating people up! So, you can imagine how excited I was to have a chance to join in on a conference call Q&A with Noah Emmerich, who plays FBI Agent Stan Beeman. As the next-door neighbor and friend to undercover Soviet spies, in addition to their government foe, Beeman is a fascinating character. Emmerich turned out to be an insightful and intelligent interview, and you can read what he had to say over at TheTelevixen.com: The Americans’ Noah Emmerich: On History, Flashbacks, and Wig Envy.
Read on for Johnni’s recap of Once Upon A Time episode 2×18, “Selfless, Brave and True,” aired Sunday, March 24th, 2013:
Calling all August lovers … he’s back! In last Sunday’s episode of Once Upon A Time, we were transported to Phuket circa 2011 for our first flashback. Who was in Thailand in 2011? August, a.k.a. Pinocchio! We begin with the first time that August starts turning to wood. He panics, of course, and runs (or limps) to the hospital.
We then switch to Storybrooke, where Snow has finally gotten out of bed–hopefully to deal with the fact that she has a blackening heart (so depressing). As Snow heads to the woods to take out her anger by shooting arrows, a total badass moment, Emma takes Henry to see Neal. In another Neal bombshell, he tells Emma that his fiancée Tamara is coming to Storybrooke. Yikes!
Back in the woods, Snow stumbles upon a rundown trailer and decides to explore. What does she find? August … totally made out of wood! He says that he did this to himself; therefore, when the curse was lifted, he could move again but he was no longer a real man. Meanwhile, Tamara has arrived, and there is a series of uncomfortable moments as Emma and Henry eat breakfast with her. Neal tells Tamara who he really is, and explains that fairy tales are true stories. She freaks out and leaves. Not surprising at all. read more…
I decided, back on January 1st 2013, that I would take it easy in regards to my TV watching.
As it stands, here are the shows I used to keep up with every week:
With an ever growing list of responsibilities (is that what it means to be an adult? If so, I want to get a refund), I had to pick which shows I really wanted to keep up with live. I’ve pretty much stuck with this, except that I added Lost Girl to the mix, because sometimes a girl just needs to immerse herself in a fictional universe several hours a day, you know what I’m sayin’? [Editor's Note: Yes, I really know what you're saying.]
I picked Grey’s Anatomy and The Vampire Diaries because out of all the shows that I regularly watch, these are the ones that compel me the most. Which, you know, is surprising since the first one is a 9 year old drama about doctors and the second is a supernatural soap about vampires. But oh, they are sooo much more than that.
Here are some thoughts about what I watched this week:
1. Lost Girl
Episodes 2×06 to 2×18
Ok, maybe I went a little overboard on Lost Girl this week for someone who wanted to rein back her TV watching. Regardless, as Lucia pointed out recently, this show is pretty great, and it has taken a hold over my heart. The first season was close to being perfect, as the friendship between Bo and Kenzi quickly became one of my favorites on TV. Unfortunately, the streamlined sleekness of Season 1 gave way to a jumbled mess in Season 2. Don’t get me wrong: this season is as enticing as ever, with the ever looming threat of the big bad a motivation that I’m quite used to and love, but the season order of 22 episodes instead of 13 clearly impacted the show, and I’m not sure it’s in a good way. read more…
