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.