Last Night's Dexter and Boardwalk Empire-- some thoughts

Dexter - Beauty and the Beast reviewWe LOVE Julia Stiles’ character on Dexter already. She is tough, pretty smart, and interesting. We think her storyline with Dexter is obviously the most intriguing one, and we are excited about where it is going. We loved how it took her so long to trust Dexter, how she escaped, and how she cut him with the knife. We loved that she trusts him now, and we hope it lasts. At the end of the episode, after Dexter gained her trust, Stiles’ character said something like, “Boyd wasn’t the only one who did this to me. There were others. It’s not over.” At first, we wondered if she was just insane, but now we think this means that there is a gang of Big Bads for Dexter to protect Stiles from. Sounds good. We’ve never had him take down a gang of killers before. This show is always in danger of repetitive plots, but it does a good job of dodging that pitfall.

We are liking Deb more and more this season, and the new nanny is becoming less creepy. We liked how Dexter got her back after letting her down. We are pretty sure she will pose problems later though. It seems like there is more to her.

We like that Jonah Mitchell protected Dexter, probably because Dexter saved him from the dad. That’s gratitude. We thought Dexter had done well with that kid, and we are glad to see him rewarded for his trouble.

Beefs: We are impressed with Stiles’ character and possibilities, but we are less excited by her name: Lumen. Ew. It reminds us of the word “hymen.” LaGuerta and Batista are getting boring, and we don’t actually CARE if Batista goes to jail. He beat up a cop. He deserves it. The show needs better supporting players than these two characters. Quinn is no Doakes, and he should stop trying. We actually like him with Deb though.

Episode grade: A-

Boardwalk Empire - Nights in Ballygran review
Halfway through this episode of Boardwalk Empire, we asked ourselves: is anything going to happen in this show? Is a plot arc going to open up? Are we going to feel some suspense? Are Nucky and the widow ever going to hook up? We felt this way mostly because Jimmy didn’t do anything to the person responsible for cutting up his ho. We expected some retaliation. He could have brought Capone with him on this venture. Instead, most of the episode found him lolling about with the now-ugly, drunkard ho, and she killed herself in the end. It WAS sweet to see the side of Jimmy that would stick around to take care of a sick girl that he liked.

But Margaret saved the episode by taking action regarding her crush on Nucky. Her stealing of the lingerie last episode seems to have been a foreshadowing of her new attitude. She is going to take what she wants, including, possibly, a new life with Nucky. Hold back your disbelief that anyone would find him that attractive and go with it. Margaret baked him bread. That didn’t work. Margaret tried to get him to help her with the temperance league. That didn’t work. So Margaret ratted Nucky out to Van Alden for moving green beer for St. Patrick’s Day. That worked. We expected the show to drag out this will-they-won’t-they thing for the whole season. To our shock, at the end of the episode, Nucky went to Margaret’s house and kissed her. We thought he was just going to tell her off for ruining his night and getting his businessman arrested. We thought he was going to walk off in a huff after whining to her. We were pleasantly surprised. Now we just want Lucy to find out. Hopefully that’s as hilarious as we want it to be.

Now what we want from this show is a good bromance. We thought Jimmy and Nucky were going to be it, but then Jimmy went to Chicago. We want to see more gangster activity, more scheming, and more of that aspect of the show. We saw that in the first couple of episodes, but the last two have abandoned those plots in favor of the love stories. We don’t know where the show is taking things, but the visuals are still good. We liked the scene with Eli and the rest of the Irishmen, where he gave his Irish speech.

Episode grade: C+