Pilot Week 2012

While I've discontinued my weekly television posts, I wanted to maintain my annual tradition of watching pilots for shows I've never seen during the week of American Thanksgiving. I think it's a fun way to force myself into shows and see what I'll end up liking, so here is this year's selection.

Game of Thrones
At times I felt the pilot was a little slow, but mostly interesting. I know that pilots usually aren't the best episode of a series, though, because they have to spend too much time establishing everything and it's hard to do that while also being really awesome and exciting. If this show weren't so popular I might consider stopping here, but I want to keep going to where it (I'm assuming) becomes really captivating. Or is this just a dense show, like a fantasy version of The Wire? P.S. Viserys is one of the creepiest TV characters ever.

Party Down
I really like the idea of a show about aspiring showbusiness people having to work a crappy party catering job because their careers haven't taken off. The pilot wasn't hilarious, but had a few funny moments, and I like its potential, as well as the cast. Lots of fun overall, and something I'm looking forward to more of (yes, I'm aware it was canceled).

Archer
I enjoyed Frisky Dingo, and Archer has the same people behind it. It definitely has the same humour and a similar feel - Archer is very Xander Crews-like - and it was funny, but going just by the pilot I do like Frisky Dingo better. That might be for it's unique cast of characters, though.

Girls
What I kept hearing about this show was that it was good, but not funny. I can understand that viewpoint; I did laugh at certain parts, but they were more like light chuckles than hilarious belly laughs. It has the tone of one of those indie movies that is often labelled as a comedy but feels more like a lighthearted drama. That being said, I really enjoyed it because I found the characters compelling. Thanks to Lena Dunham's script, the dialogue felt natural and the characters felt real.

The Venture Bros.
I was surprised to learn that this was a half-hour show, because most Adult Swim cartoons are 10-15 minutes and I thought this was one of them. Anyway, I have to say that in spite of this show having cool artwork on their DVD covers, I didn't really enjoy the pilot. On paper the concept sounds like it could have been a really cool, fun series, but the whole time I felt like I was watching a children's cartoon. I figured the show was popular for its sense of humour, and maybe it is, but the jokes weren't really clever, original, wacky, or mature enough for my taste (and when I say "mature", I'm not referring to an absence of toilet humour, or anything to do with joke topic/content, I'm more referring to joke type. This pilot used an excessive amount of visual and physical gags, which doesn't require maturity or intelligence in order to laugh at, hence why it felt like a children's cartoon). I would glady watch episode two of the other shows in this post, but not this one.

Dexter - Season Six

Sometimes when a successful movie franchise begins to go downhill in its sequels, it's because the crew tends to get too comfortable in knowing they have a loyal audience, resulting in less effort and a lot of failed attempts to make hammy inside jokes for the viewer's sake. This is what the sixth season premiere of Dexter was like. It had almost a fan-fiction feel to it, like I was constantly being winked at and force-fed a series of moments the producers thought I wanted to see. Luckily the rest of the season was not as cringe-worthy, but that one lapse in an otherwise solid show was definitely concerning; it was the first time I'd ever watched Dexter and thought "Wow, that episode was just bad."

The one thing that did remain awful for the rest of the season, though, was guest star Colin Hanks' acting. Or maybe it wasn't specifically his acting that was to blame, but more that he was completely and totally wrong for the role. He's just not believable as a creepy, disturbed serial killer (I recall that he pretty much only had one facial expression through most of the season). The innocent man-child aspect of his character is more fitting for him. In a situation like that, you can try to overlook it and pretend the character is more than the actor, but it's still going to be distracting. Furthermore, I wasn't really into the concept of a religious serial killer creating Biblical tableaux and hiding out in an abandoned church, because most of the time anything too religion-heavy automatically bores me. I wasn't literally bored, but one of the best things about Dexter is how each season has that one main villain, the really dangerous but fascinating one who takes a whole season for Dexter to catch, and this time around I never felt that sense of danger or fascination. In other words, a huge part of the season was ruined by a poor choice of villain and an even poorer choice of actor to play him.

Aside from those things, I did find the rest of the season to be adequate. As one of my least favourite characters on television, I appreciated that LaGuerta's role in the show seemed to be downsized somewhat, although it didn't stop her from being more annoying than ever. This season also includes an interesting plot twist that I didn't see coming, and a cliffhanger that I did - even before starting the season, I had guessed how it was going to end because it felt like the only logical next step after season five had pushed the show in that direction. Apparently there are only two more seasons left, and I do intend to watch both of those, but this one was the weakest so far and I'm really hoping it doesn't get worse from here.

Best episode: I'm going with "Get Gellar", because with a slightly lowered bar after the first two thirds of the season, that episode threw out an unexpected plot twist that raised it back up.

This Season in Television - 2011-2012 (Part 2)

Before I get to my choices for the best episodes of this past TV season, I'd like to announce a slight format change on this blog. When I first started it up, my intention was to do a write-up of every movie and TV show I was watching for the first time. There was a very small number of things I didn't write about because I just had nothing to say about them, but for the most part I was diligent and got every review posted. As you can see, I haven't posted anything in over a month, and that last post was a month after the previous one. I've still been watching all kinds of movies and shows, but I've decided it's just too time-consuming to write about all of them. It probably takes me at least an hour per post (I'm not a fast thinker, okay?), which means every 2-hour movie takes up 3 hours of my time, and that piles up if I watch a few things in fairly close succession and then don't have the time to write them all up because of work and life getting in the way. To be honest it gets a little tiring forcing myself to write about everything, and it isn't really worth it when there's barely anyone reading. I'm not shutting down the blog, I just won't be posting about every single title anymore, and I will probably gravitate toward posts on more general topics and top 10 lists. I'm not going to do a weekly television post anymore (though it was fun naming a hero and douchebag of the week), but I'll likely still do season wrap-ups like this one, and I will always post about my top 10 movies of the year, even if it comes in June. Apologies to anyone who might be disappointed by this news, but it's still kind of cool to have a complete snapshot of my viewing habits over a three year period. Thanks for reading and now let's talk about some episodes!

Once Upon a Time
This show really surprised me in the later episodes of the season, because I had been mostly lukewarm about it and was expecting to name "Skin Deep" as my favourite. It's still a great episode, and probably makes a close second, but the finale, "A Land Without Magic", was just too epic and exciting not to choose it. It made me want to see the next season, a total reversal of where my opinion was when the series began.

Glee
It's no secret that I find every episode of Glee frustrating for its messy writing and overabundance of unnecessary characters, so when choosing the best episode it's not so much the best episode as the one that annoyed me the least. Tough call this time, as season three was the worst to date, but I guess this season's "least bad" episode goes to "On My Way", one of the few times I didn't feel that their handling of a serious issue was offensive or ineffective.

New Girl
Like Once Upon a Time, the second half of the season was an improvement on the first, although I don't think there was really an episode I loved more than the others. Maybe "Injured" or "Secrets".

Community
This year's pick was surprisingly easy for me. As always, this show continues to do amazingly fun and creative episodes, but "Remedial Chaos Theory" blew them all away as not only one of the series' best episodes, but one of the best episodes I've ever seen of any television show. It was so brilliantly written, so fun, lively, hilarious, and strategic with the characters, that it was really the perfect half-hour of entertainment. I mean, I can't not choose an episode at which I was grinning the entire time and repeating "This is so awesome!" to myself.

30 Rock
I think it's a tie between "Idiots Are People Three!", which had Devon Banks and Kelsey Grammer, and "Kidnapped By Danger", which had Weird Al Yankovic, and Billy Baldwin playing Jack Donaghy in a TV Movie. Excellent use of guest stars.

The Office
This season had its ups and downs, but never managed to be as hilarious as it was with Michael Scott around. Still, it had some laughs and sweetness left in it. I'd say top marks go to "Special Project", because I really liked the idea of Dwight getting stuck with the "dud" characters for his Tallahassee team but then finding them to be more capable than he thought.

Parks and Recreation
"Citizen Knope", the Christmas episode that very much highlighted what makes this show's cast of characters so awesome and lovable, each in their own completely unique ways.

Up All Night
This show was disappointing in that it was a lot less hilarious than it should have been, but the finale, "The Proposals", was more or less enjoyable after a mediocre first season.

Awake
In my opinion, every episode of this tragically cancelled series was fantastic except for one, which is not a bad track record at all. But my favourite was the series finale, "Turtles All the Way Down", because it wrapped things up in a way that was actually 100% satisfying, which doesn't happen that often in finales. Maybe because shows that go on longer than one season have built up an audience expectation that they can't completely fulfill.

Fringe
Fringe doesn't normally have stand-out episodes to me, but they did something unique this season in "Letters of Transit" when they spent an episode in the future. It was a crazy and risky move by the writers, but a very riveting episode that apparently served as a sneak peek for season five. Plus Desmond from Lost was in it.

On a final note, there is no new show this fall that looks good or interesting to me, but I will probably at least watch The Mindy Project. I hope mid-season will be better.

Continuum - Season One

I didn't want to extend my weekly television post through the summer just for one show, but I've been watching the first season of this new Canadian sci-fi series on Showcase, and in general I enjoyed it.

Continuum follows Kiera (Rachel Nichols), a cop from the year 2077 who is transported back in time to present day when a group of terrorists she helped to imprison coordinates a time-jumping escape, taking her with them. Stuck without a way back to her time, she joins the local police force and uses their help to try and stop the terrorists from wreaking havoc on the past.

For a Canadian show, it was better than I expected. The special effects actually looked great, and while not quite up to the quality of American acting, the performances were adequate. I do have to say that it suffers from a problem The Cape used to have: Kiera's family back in the future is boring and without chemistry. Kiera herself is likable, and so for her sake I'd like to see her get home because it's what she wants, but I think the show wants me to care about her family and I don't because they're underdeveloped - though at least her son isn't nearly as annoying as The Cape's, and we don't spend 30% of the episode following her estranged family for no reason. Actually, I found the terrorists to be uninteresting villains as well. They're not really scary, despicable, or awesome, they're just...in Kiera's way. But I do enjoy Kellog, the one who defected from the terrorists, because he is like the Gaius Baltar of this show: a morally ambiguous ladies man who occasionally provides comic relief and acts mostly in his own interest.

I've said numerous times on here that I'm a big fan of time travel stories, but a protagonist coming to present day from the future isn't done as often as other scenarios. In a way, it's not that different from a past dweller coming to the present - they still have to deal with unfamiliar technology and societies - but Kiera has brought some futuristic technology with her, embedded in her head and suit, so she has to keep that secret in addition to her anachronistic origin. It made for an interesting dynamic between her and her partner at the precinct, but even more interesting is her arrangement with Alec, a young tech geek with whom Kiera found herself in contact on arrival because he was on the same frequency as the one she used to communicate with HQ in the future...or something like that. He serves as almost a deus ex machina, always there to hack into things and retrieve information for her (I don't recall him not being able to do something), but it's also funny watching his nerd fanboy reactions to the fully realized fantasy of an ass-kicking femme fatale who actually needs his help. The show is not perfect, but it's entertaining and has a few likable characters, as well as an intriguing conspiracy running in the background that we'll probably get more of if there's a second season. Also, well done on the casting of older and younger versions of certain characters; actor resemblances are something I'm always paying attention to if two characters are supposed to be related, or the same person at different ages, and in more than one case here, it was believable.

Best Episode: Most of the episodes were fun, including an amusing one where Kiera and the terrorists attempt to gain leverage over each other by threatening the lives of each other's parents/grandparents, though there was one episode involving a virtual reality game that was a little on the ridiculous side. I think "Family Time" was probably the most entertaining, but "End Times", the season finale, was the best in terms of quality.

The Amazing Spider-Man (In Glorious 3D!)

Impressions before seeing it
I liked the first two movies in Sam Raimi's trilogy (the third was a mess), and at first I was opposed to this because it wasn't a franchise that needed a reboot. I imagine it came to be when the studios said "We want to make a Spider-Man 4 because we love money, but nobody wants to come back for it. Let's just restart the whole thing." But after seeing the trailers, I liked that it seemed to be a little darker this time, a version that took itself more seriously.

How was it?
As I said, I was satisfied with Raimi's version, but after seeing this one and reflecting back, it makes the previous incarnation look bad. I had that peculiar feeling of cinematic déjà vu that one only gets when watching remakes and reboots, as there were certain events that happened in both films, but in different ways; ultimately, they are two very different versions of Spider-Man.

Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker was a total dweeb; perhaps too dweeby to be relatable. Andrew Garfield plays him as more of an awkward, angsty, rebellious teen. He's still unpopular at school, but not for being the painfully uncool nerd that Maguire was. This time around, he's closer to being a regular kid, and that's a significant difference. I think this one may have had a slower pace because it spent a lot of time on character development and Peter's relationship with Gwen (Emma Stone). It felt like a really long time before he was finally wearing the full Spider-Man suit, but it was time well spent because I was able to care about the characters so that the climactic battle would be more meaningful. Raimi's romance subplot was too one-sided, with Peter admiring MJ from afar and always being the one who loved her more than she loved him, even after they got together; not the case this time.

One thing I will say is that The Lizard wasn't really an interesting villain, but like Batman Begins, this is only a set-up movie and there is less time for an awesome villain. The sequel, assuming there is one, could have the potential to do some cool things now that Spider-Man's origin story is out of the way. I also have to mention that the 3D was somewhat intermittent; at some places almost non-existent, even, but when it was there - mostly when Spidey was fighting or swinging on webs - it looked great. And speaking of web-swinging, I notice they made a point of actually showing that the webs attach to things as he swings through the city, rather than hang mysteriously from open sky. Bonus!

Recommendation
I think it could perhaps be summed up like this: Sam Raimi made a movie about Spider-Man; Marc Webb made a movie about Peter Parker. This one is a little more down to earth - as much as it can be given the science fiction aspects - and a little less corny in its sense of humor, but it's a lot better. In fact it kind of ruins the other trilogy. Well, Spider-Man 3 ruins the other trilogy, but you know what I mean.

Moonrise Kingdom

Impressions before seeing it
It didn't really matter what this movie was about; I've never seen a Wes Anderson film I didn't like, so I was excited for this.

How was it?
If you've seen his previous work, you know what to expect from Anderson by now: stylized settings and character looks; undertones of sadness in spite of the colourful visuals; a sense of humour that is sometimes dry, sometimes verging on cartoonish, but fits into the surreal world of the movie; and a lot of head-on tracking shots touring the lavish sets. This is Wes Anderson's style, and its uniqueness (even within his own body of work, I see no diminishing returns) is why I love his movies.

However, one thing I will say is that Anderson's characters, at least to me, sometimes have a certain methodical stiffness to them that keeps me from getting emotionally invested in them. This is not to say they're not likable; I just don't feel much warmth or chemistry in their interactions with each other. For Moonrise Kingdom in particular, the movie hinges on these two kids, Sam and Suzy, being in love, but I didn't see it. They felt more like friends to me, and I felt like I was being told they were in love rather than shown it. But then again, they're 12 years old, which is a very different understanding of love than someone who is, say, 42. There is a potentially controversial scene where the two engage in some mild sexual experimentation, which also feels awkward and emotionally empty, but is accurate because, again, 12 is that age at the horizon of puberty so how could it not be awkward? But I was rooting for the two of them throughout the movie on the grounds that they were doing what they wanted to do, not because of their relationship. I don't think this hindered my experience at all, but I suppose you could say it didn't reach maximum potential because you have to be charmed by a romance for the romance element to work. If it weren't for the cinematic treat that is everything that goes into a Wes Anderson film, I might have liked this movie less because of it.

Anyway, the telling of an uncomplicated story in a rich way made it quite an experience to watch. There are some very well coordinated shots, particularly the long tracking shots and certain shots where the narrator speaks to the camera while vehicles enter the background at the perfect time during or after his monologues. I think only true movie geeks appreciate those cinematic proficiencies. Not to mention the entire cast was excellent and there are some good laughs to be had.

Recommendation
The Life Aquatic is still my favourite Wes Anderson film, but his record remains untarnished. Moonrise Kingdom is a cinematic experience of pure escapism, thanks to a director who practically creates a parallel world in every one of his films.

The Ides of March

Impressions before seeing it
It wasn't on my list of movies I wanted to see last year, but I found it in a bargain bin and recalled the trailer marketing it as a political thriller. I'm not into politics, but political thrillers can be fun, and this one does have a good cast.

How was it?
The Ides of March explains perfectly my personal choice to abstain from voting and politics; I refuse to vote for the lesser of two evils - because it's always two evils. Governor Morris (Clooney), a presidential candidate, is seemingly a good guy, charismatic and with worthy platforms for the masses, and is even trying to play his campaign straight, refusing to make shady deals for victories. All of that soon goes out the window when his junior campaign manager Stephen (Gosling) discovers a shameful secret of his, and the entire campaign becomes messy and dirty because of it, but only behind the scenes. To the public, Morris is still as wholesome as ever, and that's what's wrong with politics. Even if you intend to do it right, you won't, because you can't. Politics is too dirty a game to win cleanly, and sometimes we don't even see the dirt, but it's always there.

The story is not told from Morris' point of view, but Stephen's, because he's the behind the scenes guy at the center of the scandal. The film's poster is an apt one: it implies that Morris is a composite of a media image and the guy behind that image. Morris himself isn't even on the poster, because Governor Morris the human being is irrelevant in the campaign for president. If the movie were told from Morris' point of view, we would be getting more of his public image and less of what was really going on, and that would be too much like real life politics and we wouldn't get the expositional piece that is The Ides of March. It kept me interested because of this, because of all the plot twists it threw out and the very strong cast delivering the material without fault. I think this is the kind of movie I was looking for (and didn't find) when I watched Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The writing had just enough subtlety not to be too confusing or too obvious, and I was engaged in the material. Even though I don't care about politics.

Recommendation
Whether you're into politics or not, everyone should be aware of the deception and corruption that comes with running for office. This one is a handy little edutainment package on that front. Also see Wag the Dog, or even that Family Guy episode where Lois briefly becomes Mayor of Quahog.

Breaking Bad - Season Four

A year is a long time to wait for the next season of a television series, but when that series is Breaking Bad, it's always worth it. I don't know how many times I can say this show is flawless and grippingly addictive, but I will say that season four has so far been my favourite season. Tension was just ramped up across the board as Walt and Gus made moves to get rid of each other, Walt and Jesse turned on each other, Skylar became a badass and had her own struggles in helping keep Walt clean, Hank got uncomfortably close to catching "Heisenberg", and even Saul freaked and went into hiding. Additionally, every character got an awesome monologue moment. For Walt, it was his "I am the one who knocks!" speech to Skylar, which was one of the greatest things I've heard in a long time; Jesse had his outburst in therapy where he reveals what a horrible person he is, stunning the counselor; for Skylar, it was her sales pitch to the car wash owner where she tells him exactly how much his business is worth and what its profits are; and Hank had a couple of moments in his investigation highlighting what a shrewd detective he is in spite of acting like a tool a lot of the time. Seriously, does anyone not like this show?

In all honesty, Walt has gone from a good guy to someone who is mostly a dick, but I've never hated him because his actions are usually justifiable in some way, albeit often extreme, and he's just so damned good at "the game", as it's referred to on The Wire. Conversely, Jesse was kind of a scumbag punk at the beginning of the series but has developed some better qualities over time. Still very much a flawed person, but a more likable one. Part of what makes this show so entertaining is how Walt and Jesse have completely opposite personalities, and putting two opposites together always makes for the best scenes.

Next season is supposed to be the last, but I have no idea what's in store because the ending resolved the season and didn't leave a cliffhanger. But I'm thinking there could be an epic Walt vs. Jesse showdown, because if Jesse ever finds out that Walt let his girlfriend die and poisoned that kid, he'll be feeling murderous. I don't know how he could, though, as neither incident had any witnesses. There's also the possibility that Hank will finally catch his brother in-law, so maybe it will be a Walt vs. Hank showdown. Or both. Hopefully the DVD will be out sooner this time, as there will be no new season causing a delay for purposes of promotional proximity.

Best Episode: I think I liked "Cornered" best, in which Walt delivers his aforementioned badass monologue, buys his son an unnecessarily expensive car, and pays the laundry ladies to clean the lab for him, while Jesse impresses Gus and Mike by recovering their stolen meth, a scene which includes a very cool shot from a shovel's point of view.

Manic

Impressions before seeing it
Their on-screen relationship seemed to be celebrated by fans in (500) Days of Summer, but I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at the first time Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel worked together. People generally liked this movie as well, and I was curious as to why when I knew it was about young people in an asylum.

How was it?
We usually think of asylums as being for the insane, but these kids aren't. At least not in the strait jacketed dementia sort of way. Mostly they've been institutionalized because troubled home lives have made them excessively violent and emotionally unstable. Dr. Monroe (Don Cheadle, playing it calm and soft-spoken like a good counselor should) subjects them to group therapy sessions in an attempt to rehabilitate them.

Director Jordan Melamed applies a gung-ho documentary style that is highly effective here, as it makes the characters and events feel very real. I don't even think the actors were wearing makeup, which is very rare, but then this is an indie movie and not a Hollywood blockbuster. Watching these characters, it was sometimes hard to like them because they're so damaged, but it was also hard to hate them because it's not their fault they turned out that way. This puts you in a neutral territory that pushes you toward rooting for Dr. Monroe, because he genuinely wants to help these kids but is starting to doubt himself. I like how he would ease into the group therapy, my favourite example being one where he started off with everyone discussing whether Batman could defeat Wolverine, and then when one kid complained that it was a stupid argument because they're both fictional, he transitioned into having them talk about real fights they've been in. Smooth, Doc.

Recommendation
Ultimately, what Manic reminds me of is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but for Generation X. There's even a quiet Native American kid and some basketball scenes. I enjoy movies like this that take an intimate look at something I'm not personally familiar with, like asylums, so I found it to be fascinating and sometimes even funny. It has a certain charm to it in spite of a cast of characters I wouldn't necessarily want to be in the same room with. For a low budget movie that is 11 years old (actually, it feels older), it holds up well.

My Top 10 Movies of 2011

I watched nearly 30 films last year and liked almost all of them, so this was a difficult list to narrow down. You'll find some honourable mentions at the end, but here are the ones that made the cut... (Note: click on a movie title to see the full review.)

10. 30 Minutes or Less

I know this one bombed and people seem to have already forgotten about it, but I thought it was a lot of fun and the comedic cast made all of the jokes work.

9. Hanna

A very cool action thriller led by a talented young actress and  an experienced veteran. I think it does more for feminism when you have two female leads in an action movie and neither of them dress in skimpy clothing (I'm referring to you,  Sucker Punch.)

8. The Muppets
People of all ages can enjoy this movie thanks to a blend of heartfelt nostalgia and the wonder and silliness of childhood. Probably the warmest and sunniest movie of the year.

7. Moneyball
I'm not a sports fan, but I do enjoy the occasional sports movie, and I found this behind the scenes look at baseball drafting to be both fascinating and inspirational, and it almost made me appreciate baseball. Still not about to watch an actual game, though.

6. Midnight in Paris
Woody Allen is good at romanticizing a city, but here he also romanticizes a time period in this charming little time travel romance. It is a foible of human memory that many of us will always long for the past rather than appreciate where we are now.

5. A Separation
This gripping Iranian drama puts you right in the center of a conflict and challenges you to choose a side when it knows neither is more right than the other. Very thought-provoking and ripe for discussion.








4. Super 8
Mixing The Goonies with filmmaking, alien adventure, and a bunch of Spielberg films makes for a highly entertaining and enjoyable ride. I like movies where a group of kids goes on an adventure, because they don't have the capability of adults but they have twice the imagination and sense of excitement.

3. Melancholia
As the title suggests, it's not exactly a happy film, but it is a well executed and beautifully shot end of the world epic with great naturalistic performances from the cast. Too bad an unfortunate comment from the director ensured that it was snubbed at the Oscars.






2. Attack the Block
One of those insanely fun movies where, as you watch, you just keep thinking to yourself, "This is awesome." I really like the idea of a gang of thugs becoming heroes when they have to defend the city block from predatory aliens. From the trailer, I wasn't sure whether I would like it and almost didn't watch it; that would have been an enormous mistake.






1. Carnage
Unbelievably, I had even more fun watching this than Attack the Block. The cast is fantastic, the writing is strong and funny, and the final shot works as a hilarious punchline that undercuts the entire movie. And all shot in one apartment. Nice work, Polanski.



Honourable mentions: The Descendants, Another Earth, 50/50, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Rum Diary, Hugo

Click here for my 2010 list.

A Separation

Impressions before seeing it
Heard a lot of good things, it won the Best Foreign Film Oscar, and the trailer was intriguing. This was the last film on my list of movies from 2011 I wanted to see (top 10 list coming very soon!).

How was it?
As a result of this Iranian couple's separation, an altercation occurs that spirals into a serious legal matter that continues to escalate. Needless to say, it was intense and gripping in a way that has your full attention as you anticipate the next development in the conflict. The camera work is very unseemly, done in a handheld documentary style so that you can focus on the performances without being reminded that you're watching a movie. I always liked that about that style of shooting; it makes you feel like you're there.

The most interesting thing about A Separation is the way it plays with viewer sympathies. As the court case unfolded, I found it continuously difficult to choose a side; neither party was entirely right or wrong, because everyone was a bit of both. This conveniently puts us into a head space similar to that of Termeh, the couple's daughter who doesn't want to choose between her parents (though I should clarify, for those who haven't seen it, that the legal battle is not between husband and wife). Like Doubt, it is a film situated in a grey area that offers no solution; that's for you, the viewer, to decide. Not every moviegoer appreciates a movie with no closure, but I say those are the best films to discuss with others, because the answers are always up for debate.

Recommendation
No complaints; it was entirely entertaining and thought-provoking, and I learned a little about Iranian culture, too. If you don't hate subtitles or open endings, I definitely recommend it.

Men in Black III (In Ginormous 3D IMAX!)

Impressions before seeing it
I don't actually remember the second movie at all (only saw it once years ago, as opposed to seeing the first one several times even though I saw it even longer ago), but Men in Black is generally a fun franchise.

How was it?
MIB III didn't start off too well, as it begins with the film's over the top villain, Boris the Animal (played by a completely unrecognizable Jemaine Clement - yes, the guy from Flight of the Conchords) breaking out of moon jail. Everything about the scene is hackneyed, and Boris' dialogue throughout most of the movie is kind of heavy-handed. Then we have Will Smith's J doing a lot of "Yo, I'm the hilarious black guy!" with some bland one-liners. I can't remember to what extent he did this in the previous movies, or if it worked better in the first two, but it fell flat here.

However, the film does pick up when K (Tommy Lee Jones) is around, and J eventually has to go back in time to save his partner's life. Josh Brolin as a younger K does a fine impression of Jones and even bears a slight resemblance. Perfect casting there. Even though Jones was absent for much of the movie while J visited the past, and J was still the protagonist, to me this installment was all about the development of K's character, which I appreciated. And as I repeatedly say, I'm a fan of things involving time travel and altering of timelines.

The highlight, as with all three films in the series I suppose, is the special effects on the weird alien creatures. Watching the movie on a giant IMAX screen, it was more or less in high definition and everything looked disgusting - which is to say it looked great, because you could see all of that alien slime and guts and what have you (there is a great action sequence involving J and a giant killer fish that is one of the more memorable scenes in the movie). As for the 3D, I think it was underused. There were only a couple of scenes where it looked cool, but there weren't enough eye-popping shots to warrant it being in 3D at all. The best part for 3D was actually the trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man beforehand, which looks to be visually fantastic.

Recommendation
For the third movie in a series, MIB III is not as bad as it could be. It mostly fails as a comedy (though you do get some amusing cameos from Bill Hader and Will Arnett), but as a sci-fi action time travel alien movie, there is enough fun to make it worth watching. Fans of the series should, I presume, be pleased that they're getting more of the same.

The Walking Dead - Season One

I was impressed when I watched the pilot about a year and a half ago, but I didn't get around to watching the entire season until now. What I like most about this show is that it doesn't rely too heavily on the horror of zombies; they're more a part of the setting than the subject of the show. Upon seeing the rest of the season, I'd place it as a drama about people trying to survive in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, not a horror about people gradually being killed by them. The latter would have been boring to me.

I think I'm also drawn to the scenery of the abandoned cityscape, like in the poster above. There's something fascinatingly haunting about a city that stands still when I normally associate cities with liveliness. Other apocalypse movies have this, but this one just feels like it has more empty space. Maybe because there isn't as much rubble. Not a lot of buildings were destroyed, there's just corpses and abandoned vehicles everywhere.

The season was a short six episodes, so I don't have a lot to say about the actual story and characters, but I think it was well done in terms of depicting how people act in desperate situations. The group of survivors had its share of douchebags, cowards, heroes, and lunatics, which I suppose are the four behavioural extremes of life-threatening situations. Obviously they're not having an easy time, but I like that they were given moments of happiness here and there so that the show didn't get too morbid. But at the moment nobody in the cast stands out as being a favourite character. I need more time to warm up to them.

Best Episode: The second episode, "Guts", in which Rick escapes both a tank and a department store with some newly discovered survivors, one of whom is left to die and one of whom steals a sports car.

This Season in Television - 2011-2012 (Part 1)

Happy anniversary to the blog, which has been around for 3 years as of today!  A pretty big waste of time considering how few people read it, so let's waste some more time revisiting the TV season! All of the shows I watched this season (there were about 15 of them) are eligible to win these awards, even if I only watched a couple of episodes, but only those 15 shows.

Best New Show: It's a draw between New Girl and Awake, but given that one is a comedy and one is a drama, I'm not going to choose between them.  New Girl started out as a Zooey Deschanel vehicle where her character was the only funny one - which I didn't mind - but later evolved into a more cohesive ensemble comedy where everyone was able to make me laugh at different points.  It may not be as good as Community or Parks and Recreation, but it was still the best new comedy this season.  Awake had by far the best premise of anything that debuted this season, and it delivered everything it promised with a show that was engaging, enigmatic, moving, and powerful.  It's disappointing that it was cancelled, yet I was wholly satisfied by the ending.

Worst New Show: I'm not going to say The Playboy Club (which I liked more than most people did, I think); I'm going to say Smash, NBC's other big drama.  What puzzles me is why, between Smash and Glee, no one can write a musical television series that isn't infuriating.  To be fair, the writing wasn't nearly as messy as Glee's, but the characters were all such pretentious snobs that the half-hearted attempts to make them likeable did not outweigh how uninteresting they were.

Best Comeback: I define this award as going to the series that had a significantly better season this year than the previous one, but there isn't anything that qualifies this time around.  By saying that, I don't mean everything sucked; I mean everything was just as good or worse (see next award).

Worst Comeback: Here's an easy one.  Worst Comeback goes to Glee, which is always riddled with problems but somehow managed to get even worse this year as they unnecessarily added new characters (and then mostly ignored them), random storylines (also mostly ignored), and offensive attempts at handling serious issues.  Runner up: The Office, which still has its moments but isn't the same without Steve Carell.

Most Creative: For the second year in a row, Community is the most creative show on television.  Its experiments in different genres and styles remain unmatched in a medium that is slowly becoming homogenized.  Runner up: Awake, because it took the police serial and made it awesome.

Least Creative: I'd have to go with Suburgatory on this one. Not so much for the concept (although it isn't mindblowing), but for the humour, which was often dull or predictable, or both.  Especially in the Christmas episode, after which I stopped watching because it played out like it was written for children.  Plus voiceovers should be used sparingly and work better when the narrator isn't a character in the story (see Arrested Development). Runner Up: Up All Night, for many of the same reasons as Suburgatory, only it's less mediocre.

Best Opening Title Sequence: This is a new category this year, because I remembered how much I love credits sequences when they're done in a cool way.  Community often changes their credits for special episodes, and the coolest this season was probably the video game intro in "Digital Estate Planning".  Runners up: Community (Law & Order title sequence in "Basic Lupine Urology"), New Girl (the execution of it is almost like a live play, plus Zooey wrote the theme song herself.)

Best Finale Cliffhanger: I think a lot of shows didn't even have cliffhangers this season because they were worried about being cancelled, but there was one awesome cliffhanger that had me excited for the next season, and that was on Once Upon a Time.

Hero of the Season: Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation.  She may not be the funniest character on the show, but she is just as lovable as the rest of the cast and her determination, dedication, strength, and warmth is what makes her awesome (she won Hero 3 times this season).  Runners up: Andy from Parks and Recreation, Jess from New Girl.

Douchebag of the Season: Alicia from Survivor: One World.  While she didn't win Douchebag the most times this season, and her castmate Colton was just as awful, she wins this one because I had to sit through every episode of the season listening to her brag, insult people, make offensive remarks, and pretend she's good at strategizing, all while the other players inexplicably seemed to like her.  I really couldn't stand her by the last few episodes, but I'm so happy she didn't win.  Runners up: Ryan from The Office (who did win Douchebag the most times: 4), Nellie from The Office, Coach Roz from Glee.

Part 2 coming up later this summer, which will contain my choices for the best episodes of the shows I watched.

Human Giant - Season One

Human Giant is an MTV sketch comedy show from a couple of years back.  It's not actually cancelled or ended, it's just on indefinite hiatus while Aziz Ansari is busy with Parks and Recreation.


Most sketch shows have more than three castmembers (although Little Britain has only two), but they make it work by using guest stars, writing sketches that don't have a lot of characters, or by playing multiple roles.  I like the sense of humour on this show because it's outside the mainstream: weird and wacky with unexpected punchlines (actually I did predict some of the sketch endings, but they still made me laugh).  They also break the sketch formula somewhat by not being too repetitive with their recurring characters.  Other sketch shows tend to just plug their popular characters into different scenarios but use the same jokes every time; Human Giant uses different jokes in different scenarios like a regular sitcom.  But most of their sketches are one-offs, so that you're not rolling your eyes going "This again?" every episode.  One thing I have to say is that the very first episode was probably the funniest and most brilliant of the season, and the rest didn't quite match it, but it's still a hilarious show with a lot of original material.


Best Sketches:
- "Attack Dogs", where the guys discover that they can get anything they want through sympathy by having a dog attack them on command
- "Mother and Son Moving Company", about a mother who puts furniture on top of her son so that she can use the adrenaline from a loved one being in danger to successfully move it by herself
- "Self-Defense", in which a mugger/sexual predator takes a self-defense class and complains that his victims will know how to thwart him
- "Swindle Tips", an instructional video series in which a sleazeball demonstrates how to get things for free and thinks he's exploiting the system when he isn't
- "Illusionators", two Criss Angel-like magicians who perform impossible and ridiculous illusions

This Week in Television - May 20-25, 2012

Glee
Two major reasons why this finale didn't do what it was trying to do: first, it hasn't solidly built up any of the friendships at all on this show due to, once again, too many characters and not enough screen time; and second, having everyone refer back to the pilot episode and how far they've come was like Glee congratulating itself for the deep character development it never actually practiced.  It felt like it was making up for these two shortcomings by trying to squeeze in a lot of meaningful glances and moments between characters to show how much they care for each other, but the number of times any of these relationships have been validated throughout the past three seasons can be counted on one hand.  If this had been the pilot episode of the show, it would have had the same exact effect as it had now: none.  Plus, Burt Hummel's appearance was a perverse opposite of what his character normally does: his speech to Kurt came off more offensive than awesome, and he somehow danced a choreographed Beyonce number in rhinestone gloves when all previous indication of the character points to him never doing that, for any reason, ever.  Apparently Glee is moving to Thursday nights next season, so I'm probably not going to be watching any more.  NBC's Thursday night line-up, even without Community (which is moving to Friday), is infinitely more enjoyable.  I mean there are other ways I could still watch it, but Glee isn't worth it, and this is as good an excuse as any to quit - I think I was having more fun tearing the show apart here on the blog than I was while watching it.  I'll miss Sue Sylvester, and literally nothing else.


Awake
Wow, this episode had some really riveting, powerful, puzzling, and wonderful moments.  It was exactly what a series finale should be - although, about that: according to an interview with creator Kyle Killen, the episode was not changed to compensate for the show's cancellation.  It was always meant to go into the second season with Mike having dreamed a third world in which both his wife and son lived.  But in spite of that, it perfectly tied up Mike's mission of vengeance while giving us a satisfying happy ending.  I really, really loved all of the trippy dream-like scenes (when Dr. Evans "paused" in mid-sentence, I thought my satellite had frozen for a moment, but when I realized it was intentional I just thought it was awesome), and the eerie silence that accented most of them.  It was also a great scene when Doctors Lee and Evans finally met (in Mike's imagination, anyway) and argued over their diagnoses.  Scenes like that, and the one where Green Mike visits Red Mike in jail, are the kinds of scenes that make you sit up and cling to every word.  You know, as disappointing as it was when I heard of Awake's termination, this finale was so fantastic and satisfying that I can now accept its demise.  They kept the series short and sweet, and it didn't end with a maddening unresolved cliffhanger.  Now I just have to hope for a blu-ray release.


This concludes the 2011-2012 TV season.  I'll have a season wrap-up post soon, as well as my picks for the top 10 movies of 2011, so keep checking back!

This Week in Television - May 13-18, 2012

Once Upon a Time
Goddamn, that was awesome.  Being a big fan of the Beauty and the Beast episode, I loved their reunion (been waiting half the season for it), and juxtaposed with Henry's "death" scene all of the actors played the hell out of those moments.  Plus we got a handgun being fired at a fire-breathing dragon!  I didn't know where the show was going to go if they were already lifting the curse at the end of season one, but then the purple cloud of magic rolled in.  That is a WILD direction to take it next season.  Several months ago I wasn't expecting to be saying this, but I'm super excited for season two now.  Well played, Once Upon a Time.


Survivor: One World (Sunday Finale)
Very relieved and proud of Kim for not only doing the right thing in voting out Alicia and Christina, but for winning the game.  At the final tribal council, I actually thought Chelsea's opening speech and responses were the best and that she might win because of it, but she turned out to be the one who got zero votes, and Kim deserved it most anyway.  It was also unusual that half the jury didn't even ask anything, instead taking the opportunity to just talk about themselves - the worst not surprisingly being Alicia, who did nothing but brag obnoxiously about how awesome she thinks she is.  Her tearful apology at the reunion was not sufficient.  I mean I do believe she was sorry about her offensive comment regarding special ed students, but that's not something you apologize for; instead, you just don't say it in the first place.  Kat's reel showing how crazy she is was misguided, because it was just footage of her doing weird dances and physical stuff like that, when it should have focused on the dumb things she's said.  They didn't even have the technical proficiency to give it background music, or any audio at all.  An interesting concept for next season, bringing back three people who left for medical reasons, but it's surprising because Survivor usually only likes to bring back popular and/or memorable players, and I don't know that anyone who was medi-vacced can be considered part of that category.


Glee
So Tina is one of the most ignored characters on the show, and their way of correcting this problem is to turn her into Rachel for a few minutes and then have her accept that she belongs in the background?  Way to do the character justice, Glee.  And you're going to refer to Lindsay Lohan as "America's sweetheart" and Perez Hilton as a "Hollywood gossip legend"?  Um, exaggerate much?  Speaking of exaggeration, I think it was overkill to fix EVERY single character's problems in these two episodes.  I thought this was the season finale but apparently that's next week.  How the hell are they going to squeeze out another episode with no conflict left whatsoever?  You don't tie up all of your storylines in the second last episode of a season.  You gotta leave something open.  Even if that had been the season finale, it would've been baffling, because it felt instead like a series finale, and Glee is not one of those shows that even needed to make a "just in case we're canceled" episode.


Community
I don't know if there was a specific video game they were referencing, but it was awesome either way.  Annie and Shirley murdering the shopkeeper's family was really funny, and weirdly it makes sense that Abed would fall in love with a digital woman with encyclopedic knowledge.  And I don't know why Troy kept trying to jump into Old Man Hawthorne's mouth, but it was funny.  I think it shows some character growth from Pierce, not only accepting a non-white half brother but allowing him to keep a large sum of money.


30 Rock
Hmm, even though Elizabeth Banks was never going to become a series regular, I still wasn't expecting a Jack/Avery divorce.  I liked the jokes about Kim Jong Il being the greatest waiter ever, bailing on Smash (I only made it about three episodes), and the little joke about Lorne Michaels as his name popped up at the end of the show.


Community
Heist movies are a genre I'm kind of sick of, but the parody was fun here.  The plans are always so complicated and ridiculous - especially when disguises are involved - that I think comedies should be the only place for crazy heists.  But it's nice to know the Dean loves the entire study group, not just Jeff.


Community
The finale was somewhat reflective of the show itself.  Community was in the darkest timeline, approaching possible cancellation, and like a few other series this year, this episode was produced to serve as a series finale if it had to be, because the show's future was uncertain.  You could say Evil Abed was representing network executives, coming from a place where conditions are grim (NBC) and trying to ruin the show by transforming it into something more similar to everything else on TV.  But it wasn't NBC that recently fired Dan Harmon from his own show, it was Sony.  So I have no clue what season four is going to be like, but there is now a chance that it won't be good, and that's even more depressing than cancellation, because if this season had been the last, at least it would have ended without deteriorating in quality.  Six seasons and a movie will probably never happen, but maybe we can get four seasons and a movie if Dan Harmon wants to end it properly in a theater.  P.S. the funniest thing about Star-Burns having faked his death is that he still has the star-burns, as if a wig will hide his one distinguishing feature.


Awake
Another cool episode, though I can't help worrying for Mike, because if he investigates his accident too deeply, he may ultimately find out which world is real and lose his wife or son.  It was interesting when the deaths of Bird and Hawkins mirrored each other between the two worlds, though.  Also nice to see the green therapist getting a bit of screen time this week, as the red guy has been getting more exposure than her.


Hero of the Week: Kim from Survivor, for winning the right way.  On a hilarious side note, she apparently gave the idol she never had to use to Troyzan after the show, and he told her it was more valuable knowing it had been in her crotch.


Douchebag of the Week: Whoever it was that removed Dan Harmon from Community, his own show, without even telling him, because the show was too awesomely creative to have a large audience.  Not cool, man.

This Week in Television - May 6-11, 2012

Once Upon a Time
This was fun.  I liked all of the fairy tale characters banding together to help Snow White; it gave purpose to some of those slightly more stand-alone episodes because we were able to know who they were and what they're capable of when it came time for them to assemble.  Also it might have been the first time I've seen an entire army of fairies.  With all of Regina's gloating, I thought it would give Mr. Gold time to warn Emma about the apple turnover, but then when Henry showed up at her door instead I knew he was going to eat it.  The preview for next week's finale looks epic.

Glee
See, because this show has way too many characters, it keeps trying to take these shortcuts by creating attempts at beautiful moments when we haven't spent enough time with most of the characters - or the relationships haven't existed long enough - to be properly invested in them.  I can tell this episode was trying so hard to be moving and likable, but it just wasn't.  It was just a lot of predictable sap.  I immediately identified Brittany's dinosaur song as a Ke$ha (or "Key Dollar Sign Ha", as Principal Figgins likes to say) song in spite of being mostly unfamiliar with her music, because one thing I do know is that Ke$ha songs tend to be written so that listening to them will cause your IQ to decrease by twenty points.  Seriously, listen to the lyrics of a Ke$ha song (and the way in which they're spoken) and tell me it didn't feel like it was murdering half your brain cells.  I got the sense that "Dinosaur" was trying really hard to be witty, but without having the intelligence to know what wit actually is, nor the creativity to express it in an effectively original way.

New Girl
I enjoyed the ending with everyone dancing to Nick's cheesy mix tape in their rooms.  Seemed like a good way to end the season, although it would have worked just as well if they'd let Nick move out and ended with that as a cliffhanger.  I also appreciated that Nick and Jess still didn't hook up, because I was thinking they might do the played out thing where they kiss in a moment of passion and then start acting awkward and wondering if it meant something but leave it open for next season.  Nice to see that it didn't go in that direction.  Also I found it funny how much Schmidt hated the cookies in the opening scene.

Survivor: One World
It was really funny when they mentioned at tribal council that Tarzan had been wearing Kat's panties on his head, and then they cut to Kat in the jury box wiping tears away.  It's creepy, Kat, yes, but not traumatic creepy.  Although that was probably just a reaction from something else that the editors stuck in.  But then again it's Kat, so maybe not.  Why does Alicia still think she's powerful?  Because she thinks she had Tarzan and Christina in her pocket?  Tarzan is smarter than she is and had his own strategy (didn't work, but he tried), and Christina will go along with literally any plan that is suggested to her.  Yeah, Alicia, that makes you a mastermind.  I don't want to have to listen to her unfounded boasting if she makes it to the finals on Sunday.

Community
Interesting.  Another clip show (sort of), only this time using clips of the characters acting crazy in an attempt to convince them that they're actually crazy, in a delusional way.  They have spent time in a mental institution, according to the previous clip show.  And Shirley is clearly insane if she thinks Brett Ratner is a master filmmaker.  Watching this episode, I thought it might be an interesting direction to take the show if Greendale really didn't exist after all, but a direction that only would have worked if the show was going to end this season (which it isn't - yay!), because an entire season without Greendale - and with most of what we've been seeing proving non-existent - would be a less fun blank slate.  But it was a really fun callback to early scenes when we saw the hallucinated, asylum versions of events from previous episodes, and a great montage of all the crazy, pointless classes that Greendale offers (almost as insignificant as the list of fake night courses last season).  And apparently this year's paintball tournament was film noir themed.  Might have been cool to see, but then maybe not.  Hard to top the last ones, and it might get old if they keep doing paintball episodes.  But I like that it was at least acknowledged.

30 Rock
I like that Leap Day William made a cameo at Jack and Avery's holiday party.  Also a great device that Avery playing to Jack's guilt over his indiscretion ended up strengthening their relationship by reminding him how much he loves playing mind games with her - something that, from what I could tell, her mother wouldn't necessarily do on a regular basis.  I Saw the contents of the "Criss Points" board online, and my favourite thing on there was that if Criss trades in 275 Criss Points, he is allowed to grow a "joke moustache."

The Office
This episode had some laughs, including the penis-flavoured energy drink for gays, Andy intentionally spilling soup on himself to look pathetic, and the senator once again hitting on Oscar, but there were also things that didn't work.  Oscar trying to make an "It Gets Better" video while his co-workers interfere could have been hilarious, and probably would have been had Michael been there to stick his face in, but it was disappointing, and I would think Oscar would be smart enough not to attempt that at work anyway.  I like Andy getting his job back, in spite of not really enjoying him as manager, because it means Nellie loses the position, but the moment had to be ruined by his keeping her on out of pity.  I'm also intrigued by the return of David Wallace and the Dwight/Angela hook-up (for the eight millionth time) because they are reminders of earlier, better seasons, but sadly I don't think that will magically make the show as funny as it was back then.

Parks and Recreation
I was ready to be okay with Leslie losing the election, if only because it would mean going back to more of the same and that's not a bad thing when this show has been consistently hilarious.  But I'm also a big fan of Leslie and friends, and seeing them happy makes me happy, so Leslie winning was a more satisfying ending to the season and takes things in a new direction for season five.  It's going to be funny when sober Ann realizes she agreed to move in with Tom.  Although she does love his pad, so it might be even funnier if she goes along with it just to live there and has to put up with him.

Awake
Here we go, this is exactly the kind of Awake episode I like to see. Too bad it was named after my least favourite movie quote of all time.  Even worse, NBC canceled the show this week.  ...No, no, the movie quote is worse.  I'm sick of writers overusing it in comedies and pretending it's a good joke.  Anyway, it's interesting that Mike's hallucinations not only come from something in his subconscious memory, but they seem to occur when he blacks out - or, in other words, when he's been forced from one side over to the other.  Cleverly, the argument still works for both sides: you could say that if Red is real, Mike was having difficulty getting back to his recurring dream; or if Green is real, he was simply having difficulty waking up because his bungee fall was a hard blow.  I'm still leaning toward the former, but with the show ending forever in a couple of episodes we might never know.  "Bohemian Rhapsody" ended up being the perfect song to use in the episode because parts of the lyrics were so appropriate, but I think they replayed the clip of Rex and Hannah singing it one too many times.

Fringe
Dead Rebecca Mader's eyes rolling around independently of each other was disturbing to watch, but I'm not sure if it was that by itself or because it was a special effect that wasn't 100% unnoticeable.  I could understand Bell's point of view about how human society has ruined itself (just look at MTV's A Shot at Love - or better yet, never look at it), because it's partly true, but I don't think you can just throw a pessimism blanket over two entire universes.  The amount of corruption would have to be massive to warrant destroying them and starting over, and I personally don't believe that it is. As a whole, I felt this episode to be a little anti-climactic, especially for a season finale.  It was obvious Olivia would have to die in order to stop Bell (but not permanently, because she still needed to pop out a baby, and because she's the lead actress with another season on the way); when Bell was thwarted he just kind of went "Okay. See ya," and faded away; and then we were left with a not entirely ominous warning from an Observer that failed to make for an exciting cliffhanger - although for that reason it would have been a less disappointing cut-off point had the show been canceled, and maybe that's why it was left open on a more generic level.  However, the scene where Walter thinks a nurse's tray of urine samples might be jello was hilarious.

Hero of the Week: Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation, for making it happen.

Douchebag of the Week: I'm going with Alicia from Survivor again.  She might be a worse person than Colton.

The Wire - Season Two

It took me a while to get around to the second season because I had other things to watch - and, admittedly, I was procrastinating slightly because while I like The Wire, it is a dense show that requires concentration - but I finally finished it.


Because the previous season's case was such a headache for the department, everyone involved was split up and moved around, and because Rawls hates McNulty, he sent him to harbour patrol as punishment.  This leads to some fun scenes where McNulty gets revenge by proving some found sea corpses to be in his former department's jurisdiction, meaning Rawls' underlings now have to work those cases.  It also leads, later in the season, to a satisfying episode where season one's team inevitably reunites to work a shipping yard case that surfaced in the premiere when a myriad of dead women were found in a shipping container.


I'm not sure I enjoyed this season's case as much as last season - although Barksdale's drug ring was still a presence in spite of the police not really following them, and this seems like the greater arc that may last the entire series - but it did bring some interesting characters.  Ziggy Sobotka, who reminds me of a scrawny, dweeby Christian Bale, was a colourful character because he has a certain brashness and obnoxiousness that is surprising because he's also a screw-up, and I tend to think of screw-ups as being meek.  It was also cool to see Amy Ryan join the cast for the season; she seems to be one of those actresses who never gives a bad performance.  And I liked seeing Freamon - my favourite character from last season - get out of the basement and pound the pavement after finally escaping the pawn shop unit.  It was certainly a much busier season than the last due to a larger number of subplots simultaneously going on, which should have made it more fun, but I think I just wasn't totally into the shipping dock setting or something.  I loved the musical montage with which they closed out the season, though.  Overall I still liked the season, but from what I hear, seasons three and four are the best, so I'm very much looking forward to those.


Best Episode: "Backwash" had some amusing scenes with Herc and Carver involving a surveillance mic inside a tennis ball, and "Storm Warnings" gave Ziggy some powerful dramatic scenes, but I liked "Duck and Cover", in which McNulty gets back on the team and almost hooks up with Beadie, Herc and Carver invent a fake informant, Frank gets paranoid and catches on to the police surveillance, and Ziggy brings a duck into a bar (which sounds like the set-up to a joke).

This Week in Television - Apr. 29-May 4, 2012

Once Upon a Time
Thanks, Canadian television, for cutting off the ending.  It's not like I needed to see any more after Emma told Henry she needed to ask him something very important.  It's a good thing we have internet; for anyone else who missed it, she asked him if he wanted to get away from Regina and live with her, he of course said yes, and she decided they would leave Storybrooke. Anyway, seeing this episode puts last week's into an interesting perspective, because it was sort of the same father/son story with the same outcome, but with the roles reversed.  But I like the idea of a humanized Pinocchio slowly turning back into the puppet.  I can take or leave some of the twists they've put on the fairy tales, but I like that one.  Plus Miss Blanchard's speech to Regina was awesome.


Glee
It only proved what a pale and unnecessary imitation Coach Roz is when her character entered the episode spouting a whole string of unfunny insults, and all Sue Sylvester had to do at the top of the very next scene was call her "Black Sue" and I was laughing.  It's not just Roz's lame jokes; Jane Lynch has way better comedic delivery than anyone else in the cast.  I think they stunted themselves with the NYADA stuff, because while having Rachel and Kurt do nothing but talk about NYADA all season to show how important it is to them, it also made me sick of hearing about NYADA, and so I cared even less than usual when Rachel flubbed her big audition.  She and Kurt have been a little ignorant about it anyway; there's more than one way to make a showbiz career.  Not getting into some prestigious arts school doesn't mean your entire future is ruined, but apparently those two felt there was only one path and made no backup plans.  Mr. Schue would have done better to prepare them for that rather than force the dud students to have goals. And then there was the whole domestic abuse thing.  Apart from not handling issues seriously enough because Glee likes to cram them into an episode in small doses and then never mention them again (much like they do with some of the characters), the presentation of it didn't have me taking sides on the issue. I mean wife-beating is never okay, but giving that storyline to the manliest woman on the show and then downplaying it by telling us the reason was something small and the dude was drunk when he hit her, it took the gravity out of it.  If he only hits her when he's drunk, the solution is for him to never drink again.  If he can make that decision and actually stick with it, then I don't think it would be all that unfortunate for Bieste to go back to him; granted it's a big "if", but under those optimum circumstances I wouldn't consider it a step back for feminism.  And anyway, Bieste is literally as strong as Cooter is, if not stronger, and I'm not saying that makes it okay to hit her, but it does make her less of a sympathetic victim, and probably less relatable to domestic abuse victims because not a lot of women are built like she is.  I get that the message was that it can happen to anyone no matter how unlikely it seems, but what's the point of that message?  Fear-mongering?  Bieste may be an emotionally vulnerable person, but physically she is a tank and should be able to handle herself.  That's why this storyline is not helpful to the women who can't defend themselves.  It would have worked a lot better if they'd done this storyline in season one, with Ken Tanaka hitting Miss Pillsbury over his jealousy of her and Mr. Schue, who then would have cared a little more and brought the issue to the attention of all the students, not just the females, and thus it would have taken up more of the episode and gotten the air time it deserved.  This crap writes itself, Glee, where were you back there?


New Girl
It was cool to see Paul back, because it went well with the Nick/Caroline hookup.  Although it also seemed to push Jess closer to Nick, which I'm still not on board with.  Some good jokes about Winston's different earrings and the unusual things that give Schmidt boners (Asian Jess is an understandable one, though).  Bonus points to Jess for the Battlestar Galactica reference, and to the writers for remembering Coach with a little meta shout-out to Happy Endings.


Survivor: One World
Alicia thinks she's the most powerful player in the game?  What?  Kim has been controlling things since Colton left, and has an idol.  You're dumb, Alicia.  Kat's relationship with her cousin is disturbing, but her ridiculously low intelligence and misuse of the word "touche" will make for an amusing highlight reel at the reunion.


Community
I was struck by how many jokes they packed into the first few minutes of this episode.  I don't think Community's jokes per minute ratio is usually as high as that, and it was fun to see.  Was not expecting group expulsion to happen in the course of the series, although it may be a good excuse to prolong Community's time at Greendale if they get back in and have to repeat a year (and if the show is able to avoid cancellation).  I thought it was funny how nobody really cared about Star-Burns' death: Jeff mourned more for his summer than for the deceased, Pierce thought the comb Star-Burns stole from him might be inside his urn, Britta kept trying to put her Psych major to use, Shirley just wanted to sing "Ava Maria" at the funeral, etc.  Not that it's surprising, because they didn't care about him when he was alive, either.  The reference to "Remedial Chaos Theory" was very welcome because that episode is already a classic, and the Star-Burns tribute video was hilarious.  He probably has done all of those things...during acid trips.


30 Rock
On principle, I'm disappointed that 30 Rock re-did two of their concept episodes from last season (the live episode and the "Queen of Jordan" reality show - especially when laughtracks and reality shows are two of my least favourite forms of television), but on the other hand they managed to work because this season's live episode was funnier, and this season's "Queen of Jordan" still had more reality show tropes to make fun of.  Like Community's Law & Order episode, you can still get the jokes just by having a general sense of a very cookie-cutter genre, so I enjoyed them pulling out the sappy music when someone cried; referencing an unseen character and then explaining her lack of screentime by having her describe herself as someone who "pays her mortgage on time and handles conflict appropriately"; insulting audience memory by showing black & white flashbacks to something that happened only a few minutes ago; and exaggerating conflict wherever possible, like Kenneth vs. the cord he tripped on.  I think the story with Jack and his mother in-law's web of lies was a little dry, though, and I didn't like that it led to a Liz/Jack kiss.  Even if fake, it was too weird given the nature of their relationship and how unattracted to each other they are, and knowing that Tina Fey is opposed to those two ever hooking up.  Even Jack's nano-second kiss with D'Fwon was less weird.


The Office
While I didn't mind this episode, I didn't really like that they're retracing their steps in having Andy do something similar to the Michael Scott Paper Company.  They already gave him Michael's job and transformed his personality somewhat to be more Michael-like, now they're going to start giving him Michael's old plotlines, too?  I know it's not exactly the same, but it's close enough that they shouldn't have bothered to do it at all.  And, again, the Nellie scenes just felt like the writers trying to backtrack and say "Wait, wait, you should like her!", and while I found her less annoying this week, she's still not sympathetic.  But I did really like Jim and Dwight teaming up, because it's a rare thing and it's always fun when it happens.  Actually, Dwight teaming up with anyone tends to be interesting since he is more of a lone wolf who considers himself superior to everyone.


Parks and Recreation
I never get tired of Burt Macklin.  Andy's nicknames for everyone, and his treating the pie-throwing mystery like a puzzle when there wasn't really anything to piece together (and somehow solving it anyway) were awesome.  Also got a good laugh at the dancers coming out when Leslie learns of Nick Newport Sr.'s death, largely because I still find that "Get on Your Feet" song from earlier in the season to be really funny.


Awake
It was obvious that Hannah would turn out to have been right about Rex's girlfriend, but what this episode nicely set up was a reason for Mike not to move, resulting in the dramatic irony of him not knowing he's just endangered himself.  But I hope the conspiracy against him is more than just that his presence prevents some dudes from selling drugs.  That would be an inadequate reason for trying to kill his family.  P.S. Forgot to mention last week the joy of having a guest appearance by "Dr. Marvin Candle".


Fringe
Nice, another Lost castmember!  As cool as that episode in the future was, the problem with peeking into the future is that it sometimes ruins surprises when you go back to the past, like the reveal of Bell in this episode, Peter and Olivia contemplating a child, and Astrid getting shot (which actually was a little shocking, but we know she's not going to die because we saw her in the amber years later).  I'm wondering if it might have worked better to put that future episode after this one, and then we'd get that retroactive foreshadowing to set up the stakes for next week's season finale.  This Olivia's powers are way cooler than previous Olivia's.  However, she has apparently never seen Ghostbusters.  For shame!


Hero of the Week: Andy as Burt Macklin from Parks and Recreation, for solving the case, even if pie security failed.


Douchebag of the Week: Coach Roz from Glee.  Possibly the worst character on the show, and that's saying a LOT.