Previously on Wayward Pines, Ethan and the Sheriff had their standoff right in front of the garage door to freedom and/or death. Wasn’t that convenient? Before Ethan killed Sheriff Pope, he got him to confess the secret of Wayward Pines. Not really. He shot him in the head before he could blurt it out because the writers want to stretch this out longer. Then, Ethan got into the police car with Teresa and Ben, clicked the opener, and lo and behold there was a horrid shrieking, and we got a glimpse of a monster making off with Pope’s body, which so disconcerted the family that they turned around, deciding maybe Wayward Pines wasn’t so bad after all. (To find out what happened after that — or to get my snarky take on it, please go over to HappyNiceTimePeople the blog that believes that television is NOT bad for you, no matter what science says.)
Category Archives: Kay Gardella Memorial TV Review Blog
Games People Play: The Briefcase

Back in ancient times before the words “reality” and “television” were ever put together, there was a game show called Queen for a Day. The “contestants” were all ladies with problems. Not television problems like “Uh-oh, Darren just told me his boss is coming for dinner and Aunt Harriet turned the house into a medieval castle,” but REAL problems like not being able to pay for a life-saving operation—for your child. The ladies competed to see whose story was the most pathetic. The audience would vote for the “winner.” The queen would then parade around in a tiara and fur-lined cape. What did she get for humiliating herself and her family on national television? Cash money to fix her problems, plus a whole lot of stuff from the sponsors. What did the losers get? The technical term is bupkiss. (Really, I’m going to get up to CBS’s new show soon, and you can read the rest over at HNTP)
Wayard Pines S1 E3 — Reunion
Ethan’s family arrives, but Ethan doesn’t mention Kate lives in town. Teresa and Ben get the wrong idea and trouble ensues.
We open where we left off last week, with Sheriff Pope’s sermon to the townsfolk in front of Beverly’s body still chained up on the clothing rack after he’s slashed her throat. A little girl leaves a single flower on the stage. It’s not for Beverly, but the real victim here, Sheriff Pope, on whom the burdens of office do not rest lightly. He drops the knife and picks up the flower, as he talks about the “naysayers” who say no one appreciates him. He extols his people to “BE HAPPY” and “Accept each other for who we are now, not who we were.” Then there’s the call and response as he gets them to shout out the rules, the first of which is “Do not try to leave.”
Give it up for Terrance Howard, who infuses blackness into his performance. This is the most original scene so far – the racial optics of the lynching of a white woman (for trying to escape) by a black man in a leadership role who is warning the mostly white crowd – in the manner of a pastor leading his sometimes unruly flock – that this is what happens when you break the rules. (Please read the rest of this fascinating and insightful recap at HNTP — the people who bring you TV real good, even when the shows are very bad.)
The Boring Business Stuff
Oh my! Nothing but television! It’s true I’ve been writing a lot for HNTP which is all TV all the time. This is even though they pay me in peanuts. Why? More people read them so it’s a way to get my name out there. I’m hoping The New Yorker will discover me and Emily Nussbaum will go out on maternity leave or something, even though writing about television is the perfect job for a pregnant woman and she’s great at it. I’m not trying to start a rumor that she’s pregnant and I’m not claiming to be psychic like Daphne on Frasier.
In addition to continuing with the Wayward Pines recaps — despite that I don’t give a hoot what the “mystery” is — I will also be writing more pieces on Continue reading The Boring Business Stuff
The Way We Watch Now — Allegiance, The Surprising Pleasures of a Failed Series
It may surprise some to know I don’t own a television machine. Shocking given my status as a semi-professional television recapper. I mostly watch online – legally streaming, or if on deadline, from my “standing desk” – the elliptical machine at my apartment complex’s fitness room where no one else watches the shared televisions unless it’s Superbowl time.
So Friday evening, having finished the excellent Grace & Frankie on Netflix, I checked out the options on Hulu and came across Allegiance – a show I had referred to on the virtual pages of HNTP as a Frankenstein’s monster – an obvious rip-off of The Americans, with a damaged-genius detective like Homeland/Sherlock/House etc, plus whacky Get Smart style top secret spy meetings in the depths of Grand Central station, and a ticking time bomb plot like 24. What a mess! No wonder it only lasted five episodes before being replaced by the meh-blandness of The Slap. (Click to continue reading this life altering post.)