The Strange World of Thomas P. Coombe

What I Haven't Been Watching, and Why

I have no idea what's going on at Dunder-Mifflin these days. Same thing goes for Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Price. 

I have no clue what the boys of SAMCRO have been up to the last two weeks, or what godawful stuff Kenny Powers has gotten into south of the border, or how Hank Dolworth's fledgling detective agency is doing.

 In short, all my plans for writing about TV shows this fall -- not to mention actual viewing -- have fallen apart these past few weeks.

 But I have my reasons. First, as I've said before, my job eats up a lot of my time. Secondly, my friends and I have started the "Dracula 2012" project, which you can follow on Facebook and Twitter. So far, it's been a lot of fun.

 Also, I've been preoccupied, because I'm about to start a new job. Starting October 25, I'll be in the employ of Patch.com, AOL's local news service, covering Easton, the city I've called home for the last decade. I doubt I'll be working shorter hours, but at least I won't be commuting to New Jersey anymore. Hopefully, I'll be running at full steam here by year's end.

Sons of Anarchy: Bargaining Chip Baby

 I wish I had better things to say about this season of Sons of Anarchy, but 30 minutes into "Home," I found myself wishing I was catching up on Terriers or Boardwalk Empire than slogging through another installment of the When Will They Find Out the Truth About Abel? drama.

 (The answer: at the end of this episode, if you're Jemma, and possibly sometime between this week and next week for everyone else, assuming Jemma's remains conscious on the way to the hospital.)

 So, we were spared a trip to Canada, but like I said last week, it's no fun watching the Sons spin their wheels week after week. Last season, when they knew Zoebelle was a step ahead of them all the time, it was satisfying to watch. And now that we know the Evil Irish Priest is using Abel as a bargaining chip, the whole storyline seems a lot less interesting. I'm far more concerned with how the entire club gets out of its jam.

 Other thoughts:

•  Despite my feeling on the plot, the acting in this episode was stellar as always -- Segal and Siff continue to make a great team -- even if Charlie Humman's accent pretty much reverted back to its natural state on the line "Our lovely ladies whacked the caretaker."
• The guy who played the leader of the tweaker posse was on Justified earlier this year, also playing a backwoods thug. 
• In one line, Paula Malcomson used the words "wee" "da" and "kin." Why not just dress her all in green?

Tom Coombe

Sons of Anarchy: Hail to the King

 I'm of two minds about this season's Ireland subplot on Sons of Anarchy. 

 On one hand, it's allowed the show to bring in fine actors like Paula Malcomson and Titus Welliver (both of whom have appeared on Lost and Deadwood).

 On the other hand, we know a lot more than the folks in Charming about what's happening in Ireland, meaning that the last three episodes have been a bit frustrating to watch, because we know Jax and co. are just spinning their wheels.

 At the very least, the crew's discovery at the end of the episode that Cameron made it back to Ireland spared them -- and us -- a trip to Canada. But honestly, I'd rather be far more invested in the show if Abel and Jax were reunited only to have some sort of left-field plot twist make things somehow even worse.

 Also: how great was it seeing Stephen King show up as an awkward, creepy-yet-funny version of Winston Wolf? King -- apparently a big fan of the show -- has acted before, but almost always in productions of his books or stories. He did well here in a small role, requesting "80s music" before disposing of the ill-fated nurse. (By the way, the closing credits listed his character as "Bachman," a nice little in-joke.)

 Tom Coombe

What I've Been Watching: So Much TV, So Little Time

 This has been one of the busiest weeks I've had in months, so I've had to -- yet again -- scrap plans to write about Mad Men, the True Blood finale and Sons of Anarchy. 

 I actually had a bleak moment earlier in the week when I thought about scrapping the blog altogether, but it passed quickly enough. Still, if my readership drops much beyond what it is now, and if I continue to remain as busy as I've been, I may have to go dark for a few weeks.

 And that would be too bad, because there's so much out there this time of year that I want to write about. (Putting aside TV, the fall is a great season for movies, music and books, not that I've ever reviewed the latter two here, but still...)

 So maybe the best bet is to take things a day at a time, and write about what I can whenever I can. For tonight, that means brief thoughts on a lot of things:

Sons of Anarchy Season Premiere: Death at a Funeral

  Last year's attempt to add Sons of Anarchy to the line-up of shows failed miserably. I came in late to it, barely knew who the characters were, and it was only after buying the entire first season on DVD midway through the second that I felt confident enough to write about SAMCRO and its associates.

 And boy, is it great to have them back.

 "So," is mostly 45 minutes of slow burn, despite occasional bits of action/violence (the chase from the marina; Jemma knifing the guy who catches her hot-wiring his car).

 But we enter this season finding the characters still reeling from the events of last year (note the blood stain still on Jax's floor), so everything feels sort of numbed and quiet. Maybe too quiet, as the episode culminates in one of the show's more brutal and sudden climaxes. What I liked most about the end is how it suggests a whole other possible direction for the season.

The Emmys: Filled With Glee. (Tom: Somewhat Pleased)

  Some quick thoughts on the Emmy nominations:

•  I'm not at all surprised at Glee's 19 nominations. It's fairly well-liked by critics, brought something unique to TV, and is hugely popular. But one of the best comedies of the year? Actually, I'd put Glee on the list before The Office and 30 Rock, which had really, really weak years. A better list would've left them off and replaced them with Parks & Recreation and Community, so that the Best Comedy nominees would, you know, actually include the best comedies. (Incidentally, Modern Family is a close third to these shows, and I was happy to see so much of its ensemble nominated.)
•  I'll confess: I'm wayyyy behind on my Friday Night Lights viewing (read: I've seen one and a half seasons). But by all accounts, the show has only gotten better over time, and it would've been clear to anyone who saw only the first few handful of episodes how good Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler were in the lead roles. So it's nice to see them finally being honored for their work. 
• Nominations that made me happy: Aaron Paul for Breaking Bad, Terry O'Quinn, Michael Emerson and Matthew Fox for Lost; Amy Poehler for Parks & Recreation.
• Nomination that surprised me, and made me happy: Martin Short for Damages, a great performance in a little-seen show.
• Omissions which really bugged me: John Noble for Fringe, the fact that  no one Sons of Anarchy or Justified made the cut (thinking specifically of Katy Segal from the former and Walton Goggins from the latter.)
• Who I'm pulling for in the main categories: Breaking Bad, Modern Family, Matthew Fox (for making us like Jack again), Connie Britton, Aaron Paul, Christina Hendricks, Larry David, Amy Poehler, Ty Burrell and Sofia Vergara.

 Tom Coombe

The Best TV Shows of 2009

 What's the opposite of "sophomore slump"? "Sophomore streak," maybe, although that sounds like a college tradition frowned on by the administration.

 Whatever term you use to describe a situation where something gets better in its second year, it applies to two of the best dramas and the best comedy to air this year. 

 1. Breaking Bad (AMC) When it first aired last year, Breaking Bad seemed like a familiar type of crime story -- average Joe breaks the law, gets in over his head -- buoyed by Bryan Cranston's brilliant lead performance as Walter White, a chemistry teacher turned drug peddler. Thanks to the writer's strike, we got a seven-episode season that ended on an incomplete note. Then, in its second season, Breaking Bad picked up exactly where it left off and never looked back. The performances got better, the characters got deeper (especially Aaron Paul's Jesse and Dean Norris' Hank), and each episode felt like a wonderful little 45-minute movie. One week, the movie might be a black comedy ("Four Days Out") while the next might be a tense thriller ("Grilled"), but each of these parts built up to a breathtaking whole, a portrait of a once-decent man's trip to hell.

Sons of Anarchy Season Finale: Think of the Children

When it premiered last year, the shorthand description for Sons of Anarchy was "Hamlet in a biker gang."

 You had a vengeful son, his mother married to his father's possible killer, the dead father speaking to the son from beyond the grave.

 But as the season finale reached its harrowing conclusion Tuesday night, I found myself thinking more about a different Shakespearean tragedy: Romeo and Juliet, in which the children are the victims of a conflict started by their parents.

Sons of Anarchy: Didn't Even Have to Use My AK

I'm a big fan of video games like the ones in Nintendo's Metroid and Legend of Zelda series, where you have to explore labrynthian dungeons and planets, fight horrific monsters and look for tools and weapons, in order to reach your goal.

My only complaint about these kind of games is that they'll often stick in some sort of eleventh hour busy-work quest just as you're about to face the big boss, totally slowing down the momentum of the story.

 I mention this because that's how I felt at the end of "The Culling," the next-to-last episode in what's been an amazing season of Sons of Anarchy. We've reached the end, but it feel the show has thrown in some needless obstacles just to get us to the final episode.

Sons of Anarchy: The Gospel of John

 Even though some baaaaaad stuff is about to go down, tonight's Sons of Anarchy was mostly about peace, love and understanding, a nice soft breeze before the violent wind that's going to blow through Charming in the next two weeks.

 That's not to say this was a leisurely episode. Quite the opposite; in the first half-hour, all of the following things happened: