ZeroCorpse-1 Reviews

Penn & Teller: Bullshit!: Ghost Busters (2005) Season 3, Episode 10

An excellent episode. Ghost-believers hate it, which makes it even better.

[9/10 · 6 February 2011]

As usual, Penn & Teller use their mix of humor, vulgarity, and frankness to expose the people who would con the gullible among us. In this case, because they're going after ghost hunters, they've got a veritable army of believers arrayed against this episode. Nothing you do or say can make people who believe in the silly fantasy of hauntings change their mind. They have to come to that themselves, when they finally grow up and get past their delusional need to believe in life after death... So Penn & Teller have their work cut out for them! They make a valiant attempt, pointing out the various contradictions and inconsistencies in the ghost hunters' claims, and performing their own tests in a humorous manner, but in the end it all boils down to personal preference and the ability to let go of long-held convictions, and these people just won't do that. So while the episode is entertaining for those of us who know Penn & Teller speak the truth, they're only preaching to the choir with this one, as the people they're debunking aren't likely to accept any evidence that shatters their pseudo-religious attachment to the belief in ghosts.

Penn & Teller are, as usual, entertaining, but they ultimately fail to change any minds because honestly, that would take more than an hour of television. That takes years of introspection and reflection, and quite a bit of real science, and Penn & Teller just can't get that deep on their show.

Still, it's a good effort, and it's fun for the non-deluded members of their audience to watch the ghostophiles spin like crazy trying to justify their irrational hobby with their (former?) love for Penn & Teller. Penn & Teller must know this, which makes one wonder what they were going for in this episode.

The way I see it, is that this is essentially Penn & Teller trolling the ghost-hunting community, and they do it successfully. Granted, it's not hard to pick on people who wander around in the dark with tape recorders and a bucket-load of paranoia, but hey; It's entertainment!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

All The Least Important Parts of the Book in Movie Form.

[6/10 · 15 July 2009]

This film has possibly the worst ending of any HP film, and wandered the furthest from the books. If you are a fan of the books, this is for you:

Remember that cool battle at Hogwart's at the end of the book? It's not here. None of it.

Remember the important plot setup with the tiara? Not here.

Remember all the background and memories about Tom Riddle? Not here.

Remember Bill Weasley? Not here.

Remember Bill getting wounded by a certain werewolf? Not here.

Remember Fleur? Not here.

Remember Snape's important parting words to Harry? Not here.

Remember the funeral? Not here.

Remember the touching conversation Harry had with Ginny at the end? Not here.

Remember Scrimgeour? Not here.

Remember the Burrow burning down? No? Oh, because that IS here.

In short, this film is great if all you took out of the book was the romance and funny bits. If you're more invested in the bigger story, you'll be disappointed.

House M.D.: Fetal Position (2007) Season 3, Episode 17

Everyone acts out of character to fit the writer's agenda.

[3/10 · 23 April 2009]

First, the good news: The threads of the ongoing plot lines remain somewhat intact throughout this episode of House. If you ignore the case being handled, and pay attention only to the peripheral events, the show maintains its mid-season stride.

Now, the bad news: The writer secretly substituted his own characters for House, Cuddy, Wilson, Cameron, Chase, and Foreman. The actors were still the same. The basic behavioral tendencies were still (sort of) there. It's just that they all acted completely wrong when it came to the case at hand, and it appears it was only that way to wedge in the heavy-handed pro-life message of the writer. This was not subtle in any way. This was the kind of disaster that happens when a writer makes a story *too* personal and preachy.

First, there's Cuddy. This wasn't the Cuddy who defers to House in the end because he's ALWAYS RIGHT. This was the Cuddy who, by the sole virtue of being a woman (and therefore having "deeper feelings" about motherhood), was able to do House's job better than House, turning her into a pro-life advocate when it was established early in the series that Dr. Cuddy is every bit the science-minded, logical, doctor she needs to be. This is a character who was willing to let Foreman die rather than risk more lives.

Next, there's House, who would normally just DO THE PROCEDURE despite being told not to. In this episode, he shrinks into the background and lets Cuddy go wild. He backs off when she tells him to. He doesn't FIGHT for his patient's life like he does in every other episode of the show. House was taking a vacation in this episode, and that seemed to be the case even when when he was physically present.

What's worse is that the same House who doesn't give a damn about people is suddenly and irrationally caught up in an emotional moment when the fetus grasps his finger. Here we see House reduced to near-tears as he does something he would simply NEVER do. This is a doctor who has been practicing for a few decades, and who we know has been present for hundreds of births, abortions, premature cesareans, and the deaths of fetuses and mothers. He's seen babies in wombs and held newborns before. He has very likely delivered babies in his long career, and he has made it clear that he considers an unborn fetus to be a parasite. But having one grasp his finger makes him change his mind? It asks us to forget everything we know about House so that the writer can have this "tender" (forced) moment. House is made out to be the generic big, mean pro-abortion person, and it's clear the writer is saying "If only you saw the baby, you'd change your mind like him"

Well, House WOULDN'T. He hasn't in the past, and he wouldn't let a sappy moment affect him; he's not wired that way.

Cameron, Chase and Foreman are out of character when it comes to the case, but stick to their story arc faithfully. There's none of that Cameron self-righteousness, or Chase opportunism. They all fade into the background. They don't go running to House. They don't block the door and lecture Cuddy. They don't chase after Cuddy. They just let her go on her crusade to risk a patient's life.

Finally, Wilson is particularly weak here. Normally, he'd be the voice of reason. This is the guy who stands up to HOUSE with varying degrees of success. If he can reason with, outwit, and stand up to House, then he should certainly be able to handle Cuddy, who regularly gets outwitted, reasoned with, and stood up to by House. The balance of power is all wrong here. Wilson is castrated as much as House is, and all to make the writer's point.

In the end, this disaster closes with a weak qualifier. Cuddy had a 0.1% chance of success, and got lucky, and we're supposed to accept this because of the not-so-veiled reference the writer is making to the idea that God took care of everything. How droll. How completely NOT "House M.D.".

We're vindicated only slightly in the end. House returns to being himself; Spitefully refuses to accept Cuddy's gift, takes the phone off the hook, pops a vicodin and ignores the world for a week.

House is best when he's cynical and analytical. He doesn't believe in God, and he doesn't believe in risking an adult patient's life in an attempt to rescue a fetus. This is established lore, and the writer of this episode deserves a kick in the crotch for ignoring all that just to slap us all alongside the head with an anti-abortion message so heavy-handed, so forced, so blatantly preachy and falsely sentimental, that all we can do is shake our heads and hope never to see this sort of thing happen again on House M.D.

Doctor Who: Midnight (2008) Season 4, Episode 10

An odd episode. (credited incorrectly by IMDb)

[8/10 · 15 June 2008]

Some notes: Rakie Ayola plays the Hostess, not Dee Dee. Ayesha Antoine plays Dee Dee, not the Hostess.

An interesting, and odd episode. It starts strangely, with the Doctor and Donna splitting for the entire episode's length, and it ends on a weird sort-of-off note. No real resolution or explanation is ever offered for the events in this episode. It's just something that happens to the Doctor, and passes without him ever knowing exactly WHAT it was.

I suppose the Tate-haters will like this episode, because you see Katherine Tate's Donna for all of 2 minutes, and she's got almost nothing to say.

Also, this episode smacks of "pre-finale budget saving" (like with Love & Monsters) in that almost the entire episode takes place inside a small shuttle passenger compartment. There are a few wide shots of the landscape, but there's no visible monster, no major special effects, and not much more than a bunch of people freaking out.

That being said, this episode was a bit clever, and had a creepy element to it. It's not a bad episode-- It's just odd.