auntydle Reviews (9)

Hawthorne (2009–2011)

Nurses are better than doctors

[1/10 · 18 August 2010]

I wanted to like this show but I was completely turned off by Christina's behavior in the first major scene of the pilot episode.

I figure we were supposed to be cheering her on. After all, she's a crusader (maverick, rebel, whatever) who cares more about the patient than the rules. Because the rules are stupid, right? Never mind that she didn't have her id badge and looked like a lunatic, barefoot and unkempt, that night. If someone comes crashing through a security checkpoint in any building, and has no ID, they will be arrested. Seriously, what did she expect? Christina does whatever she feels is best for the patient, never mind the doctors, rules, or laws for that matter.

I saw a bit of another episode and it was more of the same crap. A friend of Christina's had a sick baby and was allowed to skip to the front of the line. The doctor who tried to follow protocol is an a$$ who doesn't really care about the patients.

Her behavior is supposed to be seen as courageous, I guess, because she's bucking a system that doesn't really work. But her methods aren't about changing the system. She only helps individual patients with their immediate problems. It's a sad truth that the only way to change a system is through the administration. So she's basically disregarding the best way to help the majority of the patients for the satisfaction of showing up an single doctor or administrator.

Barney Miller: Heat Wave (1975) Season 2, Episode 5

funny

[7/10 · 21 April 2009]

I don't remember very much but what I do remember is funny as hell. Wentworth (Lavin's character) and Wojo go undercover to catch a rapist who's been attacking women in the park. Wojo is a male detective in a dress. He's six feet tall and built like a football player. The plan is for the rapist to attack Wentworth and for Wojo to subdue him. But things don't go as planned. The rapist targets Wojo, knocking Wentworth aside. The suspect gets away but not before Wojo "marks" the suspect- by biting him in the neck. Wentworth, her desirability as a woman having been insulted, shortens her skirt and ties her shirt into a halter-top (remember doing that in the 70's?)before heading back out to the park.

In Plain Sight: Trojan Horst (2008) Season 1, Episode 4

Mary's fault

[7/10 · 21 April 2009]

I had a big problem with Mary's actions leading up to Marshall's getting shot. Marshall looked around carefully when he led Horst to the bathroom. He was watching the parking lot and the road as Mary was in the store. He even looked around when he was walking to the front of the car to check the engine. While he was doing that, Mary should have been watching the road behind them. Instead, she had her hand over her eyes, and was sulking. By the time she noticed the bad guys, they were already out of their car, guns in hand. So, to me, what happened wasn't Marshall's fault for not seeing the acid smear, but Mary's for not seeing the bad guys in time. Marshall made it a good episode, though. I love him.

Summer of My German Soldier (1978 TV Movie)

Taught me something

[7/10 · 29 October 2008]

I haven't seen this movie in 30 years so I don't know if I would like it as much as I did when I was 12. At the time, however, I loved this movie. This is a great "starter chick-flick" for young pre-teen girls. Be careful of the ending, though. There are tears and harsh emotions.

Looking back at it from a 2008 perspective (with so much more knowledge of child psychology, politics and political correctness), I think it would be interesting to watch again. Patty's uncaring, abusive father, indifferent mother and favored sister all contributed toward making her vulnerable and starving for companionship. Patty was sad when Anton left. She was heartbroken when he was killed. The rage that was directed toward her afterward was shocking. After all, she was only 12 years old.

The thing that I most strongly retained is how this movie taught me even "enemy" soldiers are people too. Not all German soldiers were hateful Nazis. When I was older, I saw TV shows like Hogan's Heroes and The Rat Patrol which also made the point that the "regular" German soldiers were not the same as the Gestapo.

"Regular" soldiers were drafted. The Gestapo were handpicked among volunteers for their special attitudes of hate. I believe that one of the privileges of being a Nazi was that they had special assignments and, therefore, didn't go into battle. Their specialties were interrogation and torture.

Later, during the cold war, I would think about Russian soldiers and remember SOMGS. We were taught that the Soviet Union was "evil". But the reality was that Russian soldiers weren't out to destroy America. They had a job. Their government probably told them that our government was out to destroy their way of life. Which, in a way, was true, since the US fought to end Communism.

The lesson is still applicable today. German soldiers were not the same as Nazis just as Muslims are not the same as Al Qaeda.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Closet (2008) Season 9, Episode 16

Bad

[1/10 · 20 October 2008]

To purple4: Bailey Chase played Lincoln. I don't think that he's very famous, although he has guest starred on several TV shows. People on other message boards commented that he looks very much like Viggo Mortensen and Casper Van Dien so that is probably why he looks familiar.

I had a big problem with this episode. The football player had just come out of a coma. Obviously, he was in no state to be interrogated. And why didn't he have a lawyer? Stabler coerces a confession out of a man who turns out to be innocent and suffers no consequences.

If a guest-star detective did what Stabler did, he would have at least been suspended. He didn't even acknowledge that he made a mistake or apologize to the man!

SeaQuest 2032 (1993–1996)

Star Trek in the ocean

[8/10 · 6 May 2008]

I liked this show. I wanted to love it, but couldn't.

Seaquest started out with a science section and a military section that were at odds with each other over priorities and resources. In a way, that was its downfall. The producers and writers couldn't come up with decent story lines that successfully meshed the two components of the ship so the stories would sometimes go either one way or the other. The seasons reflected that. The first season was about conflict between the two departments. The second season was more science (especially science FICTION), the third season was military. Seaquest just couldn't seem to find its identity and NBC finally gave up.

Like a lot of other fans, I had a big problem with the cast changes as the seasons progressed. I MUCH preferred Hitchcock over Henderson, and the romance between Henderson and Ford was totally unbelievable. They had no chemistry at all. I liked Piccolo and Krieg equally but Piccolo was more interesting with the gills. Two of the best looking guys (Brody and Ortiz) got killed off. I would have liked Dr Smith better if she had been older. With her telepathy, she was more interesting than Dr Westphalen. But there was no chemistry in the romance between her and Captain Bridger. The storyline with the Daggers was kind of ridiculous but Dagwood was cute with his child-like demeanor.

To rockneuphoria-1: That was the 4th episode of the first season titled Games. It turned out that Dr Westphalen's brother was killed by the bad guy years ago.

Criminal Minds (2005– )

The best crime drama on television!

[10/10 · 17 April 2008]

This is my favorite show. Criminal Minds is one of the most intelligent shows on TV today. Like Profiler (1996-2000) and Un-Sub (1989) before it, Criminal Minds takes the psychology to a higher level than other crime dramas.

I love the fact that the agents don't strut or posturize or act superior toward the local police. In most crime dramas, there are always conflicts between the local cops and FBI. In this show, they cooperate.

As sexy as Derek Morgan is, I prefer the un-macho, brainy types. So you can probably guess who my favorite character is. If you don't know, it's Reid.

The whole chemistry of the cast is great. Without a Trace is a good show, but can be a little stiff. NCIS has great chemistry, too. The Closer is my second favorite show, but it's very close. I don't watch any of the CSI shows.

My Dog Skip (2000)

A boy and his dog

[7/10 · 14 December 2006]

I just knew this was a movie that I shouldn't watch. But I did. And cried my eyes out. The part that got to me was when Skip was watching the but leave and then at home trying to get onto Willie's bed. All I could think of was that Skip didn't know where Willie went or why. He didn't understand what had happened. All he knew was that his pal was gone.

One thing that I didn't like was the subplot about Dink. I would have liked it if Willie's dad overheard their conversation and understood that Dink wasn't a coward and helped him to overcome it with the rest of the town. After Skip recovers in the hospital, all of the rest of Willie's friends, including Dink, just disappeared. It was as if they never existed in the story or Willie's life. If the script had done a little to resolve Dink's situation, I would have given the movie a 9.

Then again, I saw this on broadcast television, so that part may have been edited out for time.

Erin Brockovich (2000)

liked the movie, didn't like the person

[8/10 · 25 April 2006]

I thought the movie was very good. I also admired the work and dedication of the real-life Erin Brockovich. What I didn't like was the scene where the other attorneys are asking about information that should be in the files. The female attorney says to Erin, "That's okay, you probably just didn't know what questions to ask." Erin proceeds to shred her by revealing that Erin has all of the correct information...in her head. Instead of writing the information in the files, which is what 999,999,999 people out of 1,000,000,000 would do, Ms Erin Brockovich MEMORIZES the information. I guess this is supposed to show how dedicated Erin is to her clients and how much smarter she is than snooty people who went to college. I guess we, the little people, were supposed to be cheering during this scene. When the lady attorney tries to apologize, "Look, maybe we got off on the wrong foot...", Erin cuts her off with "That's all you got, lady. Two wrong feet and f***ing ugly shoes." At that point, I stopped liking Erin Brockovich, the person. That attorney didn't deserve that. Her boss called her out for her behavior but I never got the sense that she learned to care about anyone else's feelings. She seemed to simply shrug it off when her boyfriend moved out later in the movie.