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2005-03-28 Entry: "Pretending I've Finished"

A little more Pretender today - only four episodes before I'm done - and we kick off with "Jarod's Honor" which sees a mysterious message lure Jarod to New Orleans to investigate a man in a photograph. When he gets there, the guy in the room dies the moment he arrives, and then he takes his place as a hit-man.

Sydney and Parker get a message from Jarod sending them to a Twins Convention in Minneapolis. Apparently Jacob, Sydney's brother, was involved in twins research.

"Baby Love" sees Jarod get a baby dropped on his head when he's hiding in a dumpster from Miss Parker and the sweeper team. He sets out to find the parents (and the dirty cop who dumped the baby). Meanwhile, Parker, Sydney and Broots investigate the mysterious Sub Level 27, and Angelo tries to cover for them long enough for them to get out before Raines discovers them. They find records that Jarod was brought to the Center against his parents wishes and that they may still be alive.

"Dragon House" sees the return of Jarod's friend Kyle. He was kept on Sub Level 27, and turned over to Raines for experiments. Raines continued to feed him negative emotions, turning him in to a sociopath. It also leads Jarod to evidence of his mother, and evidence that Kyle was taught to hate Katherine Parker.

Over the course of the two episodes we learn that Jarod and Kyle are brothers, that they have a sister out there somewhere, that Raines is willing to go to any length (with Miss Parker's father) to keep Kyle quiet about Katherine Parker's death, that Kyle is apparently now dead (although, with no body found, there's a possibility he'll be back), that Raines will be spending mucho time in doctors care for the burns he suffers, that no-one knows who shot his oxygen tank, and that Parker's father reports to a mysterious Mr Lyle.

Now they just need to release the second season, so I can find out what happens next...

Then on to Buck Rogers (or perhaps, back to Buck Rogers, considering I watched the first disc a couple of months ago), with "Unchained Woman" which would be relatively unmemorable (Buck helps woman escape from prison so they can find out how her boyfriend keeps managing to raid shipping lines) except for the guest appearance of Jamie Lee Curtis.

"Planet Of The Amazon Women" sees Buck lured down to the planet of Zantia, where they're capturing passing men and auctioning them off. Due to a recent war, all their men are either dead or captured, and their female populace don't have enough warriors to fend off a future attack. Of course, Buck saves the day, getting the men back and resolving Earth's negotiations with the other party in the war for energy sources.

You know what struck me while watching Buck Rogers here? How Farscape is pretty much a modern remake of this show - John Crichton takes the role of Buck and keeps getting thrust into infeasible situations with beautiful women. He always has some anachronistic phrase that no-one understands. The show is cheesy as hell, but makes up for it by being a lot of fun.

Then a few Looney Tunes, disc 3 up to and including Haredevil Hare, which sees Marvin the Martian back, on the moon, attempting to blow up the Earth and Bugs stopping him. The six watched also included a road runner cartoon... of course, most of these are on volume 2, so I've got a ways to go yet...

Then, Darklight, on the Sci-Fi channel. The only redeeming feature of this film is Shiri Appleby, and it feels like a pilot for a show that never got picked up.

I would then have carried on with the comic-book-hero films that Sci-Fi seems to have lined up tonight to plug Sin City with, but after half an hour of The Shadow, I gave up in favour of Fritz Lang's M (which I'd been lent). I wasn't really in the mood for it, but it was pretty good all the same.