Stargate SG-1: The First Commandment

 "We're off to see the wizard!"

A decent episode this time, based on a concept that was bound to come up at some point- an officer on one of the Stargate teams setting himself up as a god to the hunter-gatherer peoples of one of the worlds. And this plays out decently enough in its Man Who Would Be King sort of way, complete with the inevitable comeuppance for the captain concerned. And there's a little extra drama from the fact that this is Carter's ex.

Beyond this, though, there's more subtle world-building. The Go'auld usually terraform planets. The people on this world know of the Jaffa from legend, although they hadn't seen one before. It's all nicely Erik von Daniken, with the local legends giving clues to the Go'auld tech that can save their people... preferably without working the poor people to death to build a "temple".

At this point the SG-1 gang is bonding nicely, with mutual respect. They're a team... although no one simply just does what the Colonel O'Brien says! This is all very '90s, but the show is developing nicely in these early episodes.

Deadwood: Season 1, Episode 12- Sold Under Sin

"Announcing your plans is a good way to hear God laugh..."

This season finale is fascinating, thematic, perfect, and very much centred on the difficulties and dilemmas facing its two central characters as the military and magistrate arrive. Annexation and civilisation are almost here, and both Al and Seth must face what it means for them.

We begin as the camera pans away from Al, for whom the moment of truth arrives: the magistrate with the warrant for his arrest on a capital charge. He eventually deals with this problem decisively, but not without risks that the problem will return. And yet he carries out a more merciful killing, too: that of poor Reverend Smith, at the subtle urging of an upset and despairing Doc, who can at least take solace in the fact that his care has made a positive difference to a cheerful and smiling Jewel as he drinks himself to oblivion.

Al has other problems, though. The newly appointed sheriff is corrupt and, worse, acting in the interests of Cy in striking at Mr Wu and the Chinese. And this is not a problem, to Mr Wu’s fury, he can make go away.

Worse, Alma’s father turns out to be an utter blackguard, who wants to use his daughter to finance his growing and huge gambling debts- and is willing to blackmail his own daughter to achieve this. Seth, ever the gentleman, gives him a jolly good thrashing for being a cad and boulder- but comes close to arranging his murder at the hands of Al. At last he comes back from the abyss, but not before breaking his empty wedding vows by finally shagging Alma- and accepting, at last, with Al’s blessing, the position of sheriff.

This is a finely crafted, multifaceted ending to a superlative first season. I’ll be back before too long to begin the second...

Deadwood: Season 1, Episode 11: Jewel's Boot Is Made for Walking

"You pay or she pays..."

Al Swearengen is truly the puppetmaster in this penultimate episodes, pulling all sorts of strings. We begin with him bribing Silas Adams to make his judge go away, and it is he who ultimately decides on a dodgy new sheriff- although he later seems to warm to the idea of Seth. He has worrying designs on the increasingly unwell Reverend. His jealousy at Sol when he finds he's been sleeping with Trixie on a non-commercial basis is solved by his asserting his "rights" as pimp.And yet this, along with the judge's warrant over his head, could be the harbinger of the potential threat to his position of the coming of civilisation and annexation. In controlling the process, can he control the threat?

Less clever is Alma's dodgy father, who is after her claim but is seen through by all, although he explicitly gives his blessing to her and Seth, of whom he approves, in full knowledge that Seth's wife and ward are coming. Ominously, too, Tolliver gets the surviving junkie to spread racist rumours about the Chinese, rumours that reflect badly on Swearengen, our antihero.

Yet it's not all theme and simmering plot threads: poor Jewel and the Doc get a lovely scene. As we approach the end it becomes clearer and clearer just how finely crafted this first season has been. This is first class television.

Grimm: Breakfast in Bed

"He won't let you sleep."

Hmm. Nice central idea- a Wesen that's a kind of cross between the Sandman and Freddy Krueger, that eats your sleep and drives you mad; potentially a ripe grounding for a good horror tale. But it never quite comes off, and the episode just ends up being a rather predictable whodunit with a fair bit of CGI. With this season I'm getting less and less tolerant of the stories of the week, especially mediocre ones like this. Still, I liked the literal red herring.

Arc-wise there's not much going on. Most interesting, probably, is Sean saying straight up that "I'm done with Black Claw". This leads to Meisner's ghost later saving his life because "This time you chose the right side, Sean". That Anselmo Baledin bloke looks a bit miffed, though. I'm sure he'll be back.

The only other event of any interest is the gang managing to decode those strange makings that Eve put in the basement; it's a kind of astronomical calendar and it points at a date: 24th March- in the future...

But, aside from those two things and the red herring joke, this episode is eminently skippable.