The Nine Lives of Chloe King S01 Episode 6 Review: 'Nothing Compares 2 U'

I feel like nothing is happening in the show. Of course, the fun moments are nice, like her mom's bacon and Alek's flirting. But the show doesn't seem to know what it wants to be! It doesn't focus on the Mai-lore and the Brian-Chloe thing got old ages back. I still have hopes for this show though.

Anyway, Chloe's mom finally has a date. Good for her! Now she can stop poking into her daughter's affairs so much. And I think the boyfriend has more of a role to play than just a gentleman future sleeping buddy. Mimi, a new Mai student arrives at school and dates Alek. Honestly, if I was on a roof and she was hitting on me, I would forget Chloe and get it on with her! She's superhot and seems like a good girl/Mai or whatever. And Alek knows Chloe likes Brian. He should just get over her.

As Chloe and Brian struggle with the status of their relationship, he asks her to accompany him to a charity art opening at Rezza Capital which is being hosted by his father. This was one of the most disappointing sequence and a total let down. Brian's dad and his girlfriend both were in the same room and she recognized Chloe. Couldn't they have killed Chloe easily then and there? Major crappy writing right there.

Amy dates a less than savory character from school and needs Chloe to rescue her. Of course its always Chloe that they call instead of the more logical choice - police! However, it is into Paul's arms she runs when he and Chloe save the day. I am going to pick on Amy! She dates this creepy dude who gambles illegally and goes along with him into a den full of gangsters. And she hates Paul just because he got naked?!! She's a hypocrite and needs to keep her priorities right. And what's with the old music when Chloe was fighting those gangsters. That was so fun and awesome.

Brian tells Chloe he is falling in love with her, just hours after his father discovers they are dating. And Chloe runs away telling him they can never be together and this scene was truly moving. It was the first time I felt they truly liked each other. I don't think Mai can kill humans with just a kiss or else, they would have never gone along with this Brian thing for more than half the season. But, I'm still hoping Brian dies! lol. And no Jasmine or Valentina in this episode. Bummer.

Necessary Roughness S01 Episode 4 Review: 'Habit Forming'

Old habits really die hard. 'Habit Forming' saw Dr. Dani having as much trouble in getting over her bad habits as her patients. Her book club is now taken over by her ex-husband's new girlfriend. Her kids are still playing her. She suspects her mother when critical players information is leaking out, and it could have put her job in jeopardy. And she keeps on sending mixed signals to her on-off one night stand.

I can't believe that a woman as smart as Dani is being played by her son, Ray. He uses her patient, Terrence King to get into a hip club with his hot crush and then when his car is stolen, he manipulates her into believing that it was being repaired and it would take more than 2 weeks to get it back! Then TK buys him a brand new car. The little bastard is already spoiled, why spoil him so much more!! I can't wait for his payback. TK is slowly turning into Ray's mentor and its kind of nice, but Ray gets on my nerves.

Dr. Dani must determine the cause of a fullback's absence from practice. As Meanwhile, Matt is reunited with a friend with some bad habits. Meanwhile Matt's sleazy friend, Ted (Victor Webster) is hitting on her and at the same time he is pushing her towards Matt. Like his character in Castle, I was hoping he would be gone and it was good to see he was the guilty one here. Dani definitely has some bad habits of her own she needs to break. Hopefully jumping on the other side of the bed is just the beginning.

Alphas S01 Episode 2 Review: 'Cause and Effect'

 Every hero needs a nemesis. For every Charles Xavier, we need a Magneto to truly understand the potential destruction or good that these people with extraordinary abilities can do. This episode may have just introduced the evil character who doesn't necessarily want to do evil, but situations force his inner evil to bubble to the surface after six years of institutionalization.

 The alpha in question, Marcus Ayers was a patient of Dr. Rosen's six years back. He has the ability to predict what happens for every cause he sees. He can predict the effects of anything, which makes him a highly coveted alpha for the government and hence, the six years of drugs and training. Marcus escaped custody after triggering a multiple vehicle accident during his shifting from the Compound to a facility where they would extract his alpha abilities. Marcus possesses the power to predict what will happen as a result of his actions.  It’s the cause and effect to him, the universe doesn’t act in random uncalculated ways and the life is just a series of chains of events. But his actions have a malevolent purpose behind them, he blames everyone else for his faults. The shocker is that Cameron (Wanted style gunman) has a similar neuro-anatomy to Marcus.

 Dr. Rosen and his team of alphas seek out other alphas and those who prove to be a threat to others or themselves are sent to Dr. Singh and Agent Wilson where they are supposedly treated for their own good. Rosen appears genuinely shocked when he finds out that Marcus and the others were being treated like guinea pigs instead of patients. Dr. Singh was doing much more than training and rehabilitating, he was domesticating and neutering those alphas who proved untrainable. Well, this earns the wrath of Marcus over him. Also it rises the age old conflict of Destiny and Free-will! 

 The first thing which is different and makes you look up is Dr. Rosen has got rid of his beard, a new office and the title sequence is different from the pilot. Of course, since there are so many months gap in between the pilot and the second episode, its understandable. Dr. Rosen seemed too naive to believe that the government would treat the alphas as merely patients. I guess that was the only complaint of the whole episode. And Marcus is a really interesting character. I like him and hope they make him a major character.

 The big brother-little brother thing going between Bill and Gary seems to be a continuing theme and Nina and Rachel seem to have a sister thing going on. When Cameron and Nina are in the same room, the sexual tension becomes palpable. The government agents would likely be a recurring theme and this too points to X-Men movies and that's not necessarily a bad thing at all. My only hope is that the series goes beyond just New York to make it seem that the alphas are more of a global phenomenon rather than a regional one.

Review: Falling Skies S01 Episode 6: 'Sanctuary: Part 1'

 Change seems to be the order of the day in this episode of Falling Skies. Tensions are rising in the camp of the Second Mass and not everybody is relieved to have Ricky and Ben back. They have a new insult term for the harnessed kids now - 'Razerback'. One family try to make a run for it after obtaining some medical supplies from Anne. Anne puts up a good fight, but in the face of a gun brandishing middle aged father, she cannot win. While Mason, Weaver and the gang are chasing after them to reclaim the meds, Terry interferes and helps them out.




 He informs then that the Seventh Mass has been destroyed and only a handful of adult survivors remained, while the children were harnessed. He also had knowledge of the aliens patrol group coming towards Second Mass. He convinces them to send the children and some fighters with him to a safe house. Then the rest of the Second Mass, along with the Third Mass, who were on their way there, could gather and come to the safe house.

 That night the patrol group finds out the Second Mass base and a fight ensues between the Mech and the fighters. One skitter goes behind, while everybody is involved with the Mech and attacks Jimmy, the thirteen year old, gun-toting kid. After a very cheesy crushing of the globe of the Earth, it is about to attack Jimmy when Weaver kills it from behind. The brave hearted Jimmy finally acts like a kid and hugs Weaver. Weaver is positive towards Jimmy and we can see there's a fatherly bond growing inside him.

 At the safe house, Terry takes a child out into the woods for an exchange with a little girl. The little girl is harnessed and a mech and skitter appear out of nowhere and reminds him to honor the deal he had made. He plans to surrender all the kids to them in a couple of days. The way this scene was handled was chillingly beautiful! Back at the safe house, we see Pope chained up like an animal. He is in a bad shape and we find out that he was the one who had given information about the whereabouts of the Second Mass, under an extremely difficult situation.

This episode was very predictable, but that does not mean that it was in any ways, boring. There was a lot to like about the writing in this week's episode. In fact this episode was one of the best in the season. We get to know more about the skitters without the information being blasted into our face, through Ben. Turns out the harnesses do more than get the kids disease-free. Ben is able to do a hundred push-ups without breaking a sweat now. He also explains that the skitters were more like family. Dr. Anne is now more alert and has a gun at all times to protect herself the next time somebody tries to attack her. Mason went from 'I'll not send away my kids anywhere' to 'They must go for their own safety'!

I love the way the skitters are being handled. Last week, the skitter in the hallway was very chillingly creepy. This week it was absolutely terrifying while attacking Jimmy. If they handle next week's episode right, then the predictability of this week's episode will fade from the mind and I will probably love it. And for goodness sakes, let Pope out!

The Nine Lives of Chloe King S01 Episode 5: 'Girls Night Out' Review

How can Chloe have a smile on her face when she saw two other Mai in her store who were acting like they owned her. Haven’t Valentina, Alek and jasmine made it clear there are many evil forces out there to get her! She shouldn’t open up to everybody without proof of their innocence or justifying their causes. She’s the Uniter for goodness sakes. It’s like her stupidity excelled to new levels here.

In this episode, Chloe hangs out with two Brazilian Mai girls, Lilah and Nikki. Chloe hangs out with them on a girls night out, as the title suggests, along with Amy and Jasmine in a nightclub. Jasmine is there to look out for Chloe as she suspects something is amiss, since Lilah and Nikki hadn’t contacted Valentina through proper channels about their arrival or their interest in Chloe. Their views on humans differ vastly from that of Valentina and the other Mai living in San Fransisco. They are more likely to make out and kill a human without a second thought. Apparently girls these days don’t walk into the restrooms as often as I have seen them do. A guy is kissed to death and he’s spread across 3 stalls and none of the girls raise an alarm. And of course, in classic teen show style, we have to believe that the Brazilian Mai leader sent two teenage, bitchy girls to bring back the Uniter with them. Chloe doesn’t accept their request and so they fight with her and Jasmine upon which one of the girls dies and the other runs away with her tail behind her legs spewing threats.

 

Oh and Amy wants a bit more romance in her boring relationship with Paul. So, Chloe gives him hints to take it to the next level and Paul uses Chloe’s word of wisdom on his romance and makes the classic guy mistake of sleeping naked on her bed with some lit candles! That was hilarious to watch Amy freak out. Poor girl had dressed up for the night with such high hopes and expectations! The actual interaction of friends was good to see. When Chloe told her that she put Paul up to show some affection to her, Amy wasn’t upset like in all the other teen shows, she was actually happy.

And I was getting my hopes up when Brian’s father told him to get his ass back into college, but then they poured water on me by making him stay back giving an idiotic reason! He wanted to prove himself to his father. Prove what, I say? I didn’t understand a thing he was explaining about that issue. Damn him, he is boring. The thing I was dreading has finally happened. No Alek in the whole episode!! Why are they creating unnecessary, improbable relationship issue with Chloe and cat ears!! Damn I wish they would just kill off Brian. Watching grass grow is much more exciting than watching him trying so difficultly to recite his dialogues. And what’s up with Chloe giving a whole speech about how much cat ears means to her and how much she likes him and cares about him?? Its only been like 4 weeks since she met him and she doesn’t even know about him properly. Without Valentina and Alek, the show lost some charm this episode.

And I am thinking the comedic part of the show is overshadowing and undermining the much darker part of it. Comedy is all well and good, but I think they take it too far sometimes. But it’s still addictive and I am excited for the next episode. And now we know that Alek wasn’t completely bluffing when he said Mai kiss kills. I think there’s more to it than a simple kiss to kill a human. What did you guys think about this week’s episode?

How can Chloe have a smile on her face when she saw two other Mai in her store who were acting like they owned her. Haven’t Valentina, Alek and jasmine made it clear there are many evil forces out there to get her! She shouldn’t open up to everybody without proof of their innocence or justifying their causes. She’s the Uniter for goodness sakes. Its like her stupidity excelled to new levels here.

The Nine Lives of Chloe King S01 Episode 4: 'All Apologies' Review

For the first time in the brief period of our endearing show, we get to start the episode somewhere other than in Chloe’s bedroom! This time Alek and Jasmine are training Chloe, in what seems to be apparently parkour. Since Chloe doesn’t want to jump across buildings, Alek taunts her as a scaredy ‘human’. Yeah, who wouldn’t want to jump across the huge gap between buildings and not get scared out of their minds. It’s not like death is a big deal if they didn’t make it! And humans are basically a spineless race according to him!

Ooh, I wanna kiss Alek! Wait! Damn there’s cat-ears too!

Also Chloe is starting to hear other people’s conversations and she can’t control it. Alek helps her to control her gift in the middle of a crowded marketplace or something by making her listen to his heartbeat and our Chloe goes weak in the knees at that moment. I really wish they just hook up! Alek is infinitely more interesting than cat ears Brian! And what’s with dear old Mom. She doesn’t even care about Chloe’s life now? She used to poke around so much into Chloe’s life and now all of a sudden, she doesn’t want to?? Well, that was resolved by the end.

This episode contained a stalker storyline along with the season arc of the Mai and The Order. Since Chloe can’t keep her nose out of other people’s business and now with her newfound empathy powers (which is an extra power which other Mai don’t have!), she gets tangled up with shopkeeper friend’s ex-boyfriend. You know the car scene with annoying Amy, it reminded me of Nancy Drew, Chloe being a more kick-ass Nancy Drew! (No disrespect to her, I loved Nancy Drew when I was younger. I suppose I do even now). With this, my doubts have been confirmed – Meddling is a Superhero birthright!

“I want to be a meddlesome Rapunzel!” Adorable pigtail Chloe!!

Also Cat Ears didn’t seem to be as pathetic in this episode. He actually got a pretty good story now. He has no friends beside Chloe and he wants to date her – a 16-year-old, which basically means he’s the most pathetic guy ever. He discloses the real reason he came to the city. His mother was murdered and someone left him a key with a note saying that all was not as it seemed or something to that effect. He snoops around a bit and realizes his father had been hiding the whole truth from him. Come on Brian, when has your father ever been less than mysterious and emotionally distant?!! You should have realized something was wrong a long time ago! But of course, if he didn’t have a sad story, he wouldn’t have anything to brood about now, would he? And girls find brooding, creepy guys so attractive nowadays. So the writers said, lets keep him brooding for a reason now.

So this episode we finally had a Mai and The Order semi-leader showdown!! Brilliant, I can’t wait for more of their confrontations. The San Fransisco Mai leader was relaxing on Brian’s dad’s couch in a cat-like way and threatened him and his son. The most witty reply he could come up with was – “Get out of my house”! Dude you really have to improve upon your threats. Just looking constipated all the time won’t cut it!

I'm the king of constipated looks!

So, this episode wasn’t great or anything. They are continuing with the case of the week storytelling. They should stress more on the Mai mythology and less on stupid train wrecks like stalker boy! But, this episode still raised some interesting questions: Did the Mai kill Brian’s mother? Will Brian ever man up and go on a date with someone his own age? And how much do you love our adorable, meddling Chloe with the pigtail? lol. This show has slowly crept up into my ‘lovable awesome teen shows’ list!! What did you think of this week’s episode? Sound off on the comments below!

The Nine Lives of Chloe King S01 Episode 3: 'Green Star' Review

Our beloved show begins and ends with the way it typically likes to – Chloe alone in her room. This time we have Alek, who is flirting with her on her bed and even though she looks like she is annoyed, she is not trying hard enough to chase him away. So, she probably likes it. Turns out Alek isn’t there solely for the purpose of flirting with her – the Mai Leader wants to meet Chloe! I’m surprised it took her this long to even bother. Alek could have told this in school, but then we wouldn’t have the wacky mom moment. Of course, mom imposes a ‘No Boys in Bedroom’ rule. Like as if her teenage daughter wouldn’t have sex anywhere else if she wanted to!

Chloe meets Valentina, the leader of the San Francisco Mai who also happens to be Jasmine’s mom. She suggests Chloe go into hiding to remain safe. Chloe’s unsure of abandoning her life because of her mom and friends. The scarface killer is still out there and he begins stalking Chloe’s love ones and after a talk with Valentina, Chloe’s informed that even though Mai and Human co-exist, they just don’t mix. Amy performs at local talent show and Paul cheers her. Scarface steals Chloe’s mother cell phone calling her on it. Chloe finds out that scarface is bluffing and asks Alek to look out for her mom and Valentina makes Chloe to stay in her home. Scarface calls again, this time from the place where Amy is performing and threatens her. Chloe agrees to give herself up. Scarface then traps Chloe and throws her into the river to drown. That’s the best and most efficient way to kill her as everytime she returns back to life, she would drown again with no air to breathe. As Chloe struggles, Jasmine arrives and fights him until Chloe’s free of the ropes. They fight him off and Valentina comes out of the blue, pulls out a badass looking knife and kills Scarface in the process saving her daughter and Chloe from certain death.

 Valentina came across as someone who gets what she wants no matter the price. She would definitely not leave Chloe alone until she gets her into going into hiding. On Chloe’s behalf Alek had been guarding her mom until she came back. That should atleast send a message to her that he actually cares about her and is not the snob he usually portrays himself as. And enough with the Chloe-Brian thing already. It is very annoying to watch the scenes where they are together. And he stalks Chloe EVERYWHERE!! No way is that even remotely cute. I am a guy and my friends have tried that. Trust me, a girl finds it creepy if you know everything about her. On another note, I think that Chloe’s mom may know about Chloe’s past. Well, we will find that out when that bridge comes to pass. And Amy actually seems to think that her singing debut is much more important than finding out about Chloe’s destiny, responsibilities and escaping scarface! She was cute before, but is now turning slightly obnoxious. Nobody should joke about breaking up with your significant others in front of third parties. Oh and Paul is probably the only one who gets how awesome and interesting Chloe’s newfound power is. Paul, you just became the voice of reason on this show. But that crying scene made him very lame!

Were you all happy that scarface died? Now that scarface is apparently dead, who will be the one to come after Chloe next? And will Brian’s dad learn about his son and Chloe anytime soon? Do you want Chloe to be with Brian or Alek? Will Valentina be able to convince Chloe into hiding? Does Chloe’s mom know about her daughter’s mysterious origins? And can anybody please tell me what the hell this episode’s title – Green Star means?