Whether or not 1996’s The Arrival works for you or not will likely boil down to whether or not you can accept the premise of Charlie Sheen as a scientist who stumbles into, and becomes lost in, a vast conspiracy of aliens on Earth altering the planet for their own ends. It’s B-movie sci-fi to be sure, but it’s held up fairly well over the years even if the film struggles at times balancing the higher-minded scientific ideas with the rampant paranoia.
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Picking from the last season’s cliffhanger, NCIS launches its twentieth season with Parker (Gary Cole) on the run and the team working to prove his innocence and untangle a convoluted storyline which will leave the team dumbfounded before the end. The episode marks the first-half a two-part crossover with the visiting Tennant (Vanessa Lachey) and Ernie (Jason Antoon) lending a hand which will be reciprocated in the NCIS: Hawai’i season premiere.
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NCIS – A Family Matter Read More »
The Big Leap closes out the season with the long-awaited performance of Swan Lake, which despite the obstacles and drama (and some of the cast falling through a trap door on stage and getting lost during the live performance) comes off well. The finale plants several seeds to cultivate if the show would be renewed for a second season (cluing us in on which characters would likely come back). The Big Leap worked better than expected telling a self-contained story involves several characters who likely couldn’t be brought back including Piper Perabo who turns out to be the beating heart of the second-half of the season. I think anything more would offer only diminishing returns. That said, the season (and perhaps the series) goes out in style.
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The Big Leap – We Make Our Own Light Read More »
The penultimate episode of The Big Leaps gives us the final two days leading up to the live performance of Swan Lake. For Mike (Jon Rudnitsky) that means struggling on after the death of Paula (Piper Perabo), for Nick (Scott Foley) that means standing up to his boss’ crazy last idea, and for Gabby (Simone Recasner) that means putting some more of creativity to work in helping to choreograph a new ending to the show before returning to her old life. Perabo, who only appears in recorded messages from an iPad after the initial pre-credit scenes, is terrific here as Paula provides Mike with the encouragement needed to finish the show for both of them and reminds us how how lucky the two of them were to find each other (even for so short a time).
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The Big Leap – Swan Song Read More »
Wedding bells chime in “What Prevents Us?” as Mike (Jon Rudnitsky) helps Paula (Piper Perabo) knock off one of her bucket list items. The entire show comes together in setting up the wedding, complete with bachelor and bachelorette parties, and a few last-minute hurdles for Nick (Scott Foley) to produce his way through including dealing with Mike’s former wife and getting certified to officiate the ceremony. While there are other storylines at play involving Justin’s (Raymond Cham Jr.) future and Gabby’s (Simone Recasner) relationship, the episode begins and ends with Mike (who has a complicated past dealing with the death of his loved ones) and Paula who have a hard road ahead but were given a beautiful wedding night by their friends.
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The Big Leap – What Prevents Us? Read More »
