Toastkitten

Thus far S5 has been underwhelming, to say the least. The downhill slide in ratings is no surprise to loyal fans, given that TPTB changed night and time (again!), added a bunch of new characters that are nowhere near as intriguing as the orig cast and axed Vaughn (aka my imaginary boyfriend). But whatever. I'm a diehard. I'll stick with this silly show till its dead and buried and the DVDs can be found in the 99 cents bin.

Even though I don't really like Rachel and I would prefer that Syd stay APO once in a while and actually design a mission (instead of hauling her enormous belly around in really silly outfits), there are some things I'm enjoying this season. First, I think SpyGrandpa is awesome - VG has been very funny and sweet especially in the last ep. Also, I like the chemistry bet Tom Grace and Dix, they make a good team. I hope that they get to do more missions together. I also think that the build towards finding out more of Grace's background is a lot of fun. Personally, I believe that he's Jack's kid but even if this turns out not to be true, he's clearly got some crazy, twisted, juicy, family history that I CAN NOT WAIT to find out about. Also, I love, love, love all the shout outs to S1-4. Seeing Professor Choy (aka Mr. Wu, aka Keone Young) was funny and so sad at the same time. "Someone from another life" ... total heart in the throat moment...sniff, sniff.

On the negative side….. Oh, where to begin! The writing is not as good as in previous seasons. 1. Sloane’s goes from good to evil, and then back to good at least 3x per episode and it’s getting old 2. There has GOT to be a better, more interesting way to get Rachel up to speed in the spy game. I happen to think she is dull and timid and after seeing the rest of her relatives in "Solo", I also think she's comes from a family of clones (could those people look more generic?!), but that's just me. She's got boobs and blond hair and she can speak English, which basically covers what I imagine JJ must have told the casting director. 3. And as previously stated, I think it's dumb that Syd needs to go out on almost every mission and ... do nothing really because she is pregnant and big as a freakin' house. OK, OK, the casino scene was funny. I thought she used the pregnancy well in that ep, but she needs to stay at APO and be on comms a bit more, like Vaughn was for her. I just don't see how she can fly around the world and be hangin out with the bad guys all the time when she's, well, HUGE and not at her most agile. I'm not saying that a pregnant woman can't do anything but sit around but I still think she is in the field too much and it looks silly. Plus, it would be interesting to see her react to being sidelined for a change. She's not the hot shot anymore, so let's see if there are other aspects of the spy game that she might be good at. I mean she's got to realize that if everyone is worried about the pregnant agent on the mission, then they are not working at their best.

Final note, I think the music is worse this year. The score seems thin and the pop songs are not as fun as they used to be. Guess the budget has shrunk along with the audience.