This Week in Television - July 5-9, 2010

Happy Town
Wow, I was not expecting all those reveals. Nor was I expecting them to tell us the Magic Man's identity, but seeing as how the series is over I'm glad there was at least that much closure. I'm also glad to say my predictions were wrong. Happy Town has been somewhat average up until now, but this episode had all the makings of a good finale: action and suspense, some questions answered while new ones opened up, and M.C. Gainey busting into a room with two automatic machine guns raised in the air. I may not have said this before watching this episode, but I'll miss you, Happy Town.

The IT Crowd
Well, we started the season with a sub-par episode, then moved on to an awesome one, and this week's episode I'd say is middle of the road. I'm not against ridiculing Scientology - it is the most ridiculous religion in existence - but my problem with the Spaceology storyline in this episode is just that it came much too late. People have been making fun of Scientology ever since Tom Cruise put it in the spotlight, but that was years ago and the topic has cooled off by now. However, I will say that Douglas is just the kind of self-indulgent moron who would buy into a bogus religion created by someone named Beth Gaga Shaggy (another cameo from creator/writer/director Graham Linehan), so it worked in that sense. Jen's storyline was amusing, dating the nerdiest and most boring guy in a band (he basically has just one dull facial expression), as was Roy's sexual harassment trial against the masseur who kissed him on the ass, but unlike some of the better episodes, none of the arcs tied together.

This Week in Television - June 28-July 2, 2010

Happy Town
Dan Farmer isn't the magic man, but clearly he knows more than he lets on. Otherwise I don't see why he would so easily believe Big Dave's unconfirmed story about the pit with the seven cages. Or maybe he simply believed it because no one else did, and that's the kind of risk taker he is. And I think that Peggy Haplin having murdered TC's mother suggests a connection to the magic man through Henley. It's suspicious that she knows what Peggy did, and that Sheriff Griffin mentions her alias/real name (Chloe) when tranced, which I still believe was somehow induced by the magic man. Bonus points for including "Magic Man" by Heart in the soundtrack for this episode, the second song so far (unless I missed more) to have "magic man" in the lyrics.

The IT Crowd
Definitely a vast improvement over last week. This felt like a proper episode again, with all of our characters getting in some good moments, except for maybe Douglas, who actually sort of played it straight for a change. I especially loved Moss's storyline with the game show and then the secret society thing that sort of turned into a Fight Club parody. The Asian guy did a hilarious job of strengthening those scenes by overly dramatizing everything. I am both relieved and satisfied, because for a moment I was worried the whole season might turn out like the premiere.

This Week in Television - June 14-18, 2010

Only one show left now. I doubt I will be getting into any of the summer programming (while I'll miss my shows, it's relieving to not spend such a big chunk of my week watching TV).

Happy Town
I forgot to mention it when he showed up in a previous episode and was reminded when I saw him again this week, but the bald guy in the bowler hat looks like an observer from Fringe. Moreso last time I saw him, because he was just sort of passing through the shot like they tend to do on Fringe. How awesome would it be if he just started sneaking into the backgrounds of every show on television? But anyway: old TC was sloppy once again. When Big Dave said he wanted one more night to tell his mom what he'd done, I knew he was going to skip town. I realize TC trusts him an awful lot because they're old friends, but as sheriff he probably should have seen it coming. I did and I am terrible at predicting things. I wonder what Farmer's motives are for being so extreme if he's not the magic man (and I don't believe he is, because that would be too obvious). I guess he probably lost someone to him too. But best cop ever? I don't think so, Dan. What about the Kindergarten Cop, or the Beverly Hills Cop? No way you're awesomer than them. Just for fun I'm going to make a crazy prediction and say Root Beer is the magic man. Why? Because he's the perfect surprise suspect. He's a cop, he's a very under the radar minor character, and everybody tends to shrug him off quickly, like that time TC and Grieves stumbled upon him in the middle of the night and didn't really question him. I think Rachel was being returned at that time, but since the magic man is so fast, he probably would've had time to bring her back as TC was leaving and then make an appearance to be above suspicion. Just a random accusation, but if I end up being right then I will look even awesomer than Farmer thinks he is.

This Week in Television - June 7-11, 2010

Glee
I liked that New Directions and Vocal Adrenaline performed songs at Regionals from two of the greatest 80's rock bands ever (Journey and Queen), but both teams butchered their songs and the performances were pretty underwhelming even though we as the audience were supposed to be amazed. New Directions actually put on a better show at Sectionals, so it sort of makes sense that they won there and lost here. Also I like that they stopped with the "Finn is a superstar" mentality, because he's nowhere near as talented as Rachel. And even though I would love to see Sue Sylvester crush the glee club, it's nice seeing her show compassion. The final scene with her and Schuester was great, with him showering her with sappy Hallmark compliments while she responds "I'm about to vomit directly into your mouth." Sometimes I feel that way about Glee too, Sue. But the season's over, and while it is a highly average show, it could've been worse. Just a bit.

Happy Town
This show needs more M.C. Gainey so I was glad to see him awake again. I'm not sure if the ending with Dan Farmer taking off with Georgia and Andrew was meant to reveal that he is the magic man, or just make us think he is. Hopefully the latter, because it's too big of a mystery for an easy and obvious reveal like that. It worked on Dexter when they showed us who the ice truck killer was before any of the other characters knew, but I don't think it would fly as well here. Or maybe the person strangling Grieves at the end was supposed to be the magic man, since we didn't see his face.

This Week in Television - May 31-June 4, 2010

Glee
I guess there isn't a single woman anywhere on this show who can resist the charms of Mr. Schuester. Not even his nemesis, Sue Sylvester. I can buy that she might respond to him out of loneliness and desperation like she said, but I have trouble believing that she wouldn't suspect something was up when her sworn enemy suddenly started seducing her. Come on, Sue, that's the oldest trick in the book. But I did enjoy seeing the inside of her house overflowing with a collection of trophies so numerous that I'm not sure any one person could win that many in one lifetime.

Happy Town
Sheriff Tommy was being sloppy. If I were him I would've told Big Dave my spruce planting story as soon as I saw him. Comparing the magic man's acts to magic tricks was interesting. It was a lot like a magic trick when he took Rachel: the disappearance, the switch, misdirection, and then the reappearance. And after the discovery of the severed hand in the "bready", I am still maintaining that there is something important in the theme of chopping off hands with wedding rings on them.

This Week in Television - May 10-14, 2010

So Heroes and Flash Forward have both been canceled. I think I'm actually a little relieved, because as you can see my TV lineup is already up to 10 regular shows. But I'll miss them, even if they were going downhill.

Lost
I don't know if I would say I disliked this episode, but I was disappointed because, being about Jacob and the Man in Black, I was expecting it to be the mother of all episodes. It did have its share of revelations, of course, but as always it also created more questions that we probably didn't need seeing as how there are only two episodes left. And, dammit, I was so sure the Man in Black would have a name! Even he didn't ask what his own name was!

Glee
So Puck gets his Mohawk shaved off into a very respectable buzzcut and suddenly he's such a loser that nerds get away with throwing him in the dumpster? This is why I hate it when adults try to write about high school. They either have no clue how it works or take way too many liberties with what they do know. That being said, I did enjoy Brittany asking "Who is that guy?" when he walked into the room.

V
That was actually a tense scene when Lisa had to point out her "attacker" from the lineup. I get why she went with Anna's plan though. She needs to make her think she's still with her, and being Anna's enemy is much scarier than being Erica's.

Happy Town
Well, I like that this show takes crazy turns. I would not have guessed that having a bird crash through Henley's windshield (which I also couldn't have predicted) would lead to her having sex with a stranger, who then steals the special hammer thing she found. Also I believe a connection was implied between the disappearance of the writing in Grieves' notebook and the disappearances of people in town. I would still like to think that he is the Magic Man, but again that would be too obvious.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Since this post is late I'm including the Sunday finale along with Thursday's episode. Colby yelling at his brother during the reward challenge was funny. I guess for once he had someone else to blame for his poor challenge performances. And Russell's anger at not being chosen to come along on the reward can probably just be attributed to his arrogance, because his rationale made no sense to me: "Terrible strategic move, she should have brought a guy!" Um, okay. As this season has progressed, Russell has become more and more of a tyrant who throws tantrums whenever things don't go the way he wanted them to. I don't think he was as bad last season, and that's because he actually was in control the entire time. Seeing Parvati squeeze through two more tribal councils in the finale had me seriously worried that she would win after all, but luckily it went to Sandra. Hell, I would've been okay with Russell winning too. As I said earlier, I was strongly against the idea of spoiled little Parv being rewarded the title of first Survivor to ever win twice. But of course that meant that at the reunion show we had to watch Russell and Parvati (mostly Russell) continue to insist upon their own greatness in spite of losing. Russ even went so far as to wave JT's letter around because "proving a former winner dumb makes me the greatest" and then proceeded to suggest that the game was flawed because it wasn't suited to stroking his ego. I thought he was furious last season, but that is some of the sorest losing I've ever seen. And I guarantee you he'll be back for the next all stars season.

Flash Forward
I'm wondering what Gabriel's motives are for wanting the events of flash forwards to play out as he saw them. I guess he just saw something he liked in one of them (Lloyd and Olivia's relationship, maybe?). I don't think Janis is going to kill Mark, and her refusal is why a team of men will be sent into Mark's office to do the job for her.

Parks and Recreation
I'd heard about Rob Lowe and Adam Scott joining the cast so I was interested to see how they would fit in. I liked Lowe's thing where he points at someone, says their name, and then holds for a long pause because it is a believable little quirk that I could see someone having. And Scott's backstory about being an irresponsible 18 year-old mayor was also a good gag, but mainly I like the potential storyline that these two have opened up: cutbacks in the parks department. Not that I necessarily want that to happen - or that I don't enjoy Ron Swanson's giggly delight over it - I'm just interested to see where it leads. Also Jean Ralphio trying to hit on April in front of Andy is not cool.

The Office
The montage of Dwight doing painful things to his groin to make himself sterile was fun, and the acting out of lining up Toby with Hitler and Bin Laden and shooting them all through the throat with one bullet, but overall this episode wasn't that memorable.

30 Rock
I'm starting to think that Jack likes Avery more than Nancy, firstly because he is a man of expensive and classy tastes and she's high society, and secondly because Elizabeth Banks is probably a more readily available guest star than Julianne Moore. Tracy's horrible childhood memories were the highlight of the episode though. "Our basketball hoop was a RIBCAGE!"

Fringe
Damn, I love this show. Starting in the alternate universe and then having a slightly different title sequence (like the 80's one in "Peter") was awesome. Wouldn't it be a really cool and unprecedented thing if there were a spinoff show airing at the same time, only the episodes were slightly different to reflect the two universes? Anyway, back to the episode. Rounding up some other Cortexiphan subjects made the group more like a superhero team, which would've been awesome because Peter looked like a supervillain in that trippy drawing where his eyes were smoking. I am so ready for part 2 of this episode.

Hero of the Week: Sandra from Survivor, because I was hoping she would win, and she did, and to top it off she threw Russell's trademark hat into the fire. You can say all you want about Russell and/or Parvati playing a better game than her, but Sandra used the exact same under the radar strategy as she used the first time, and it worked twice so she's gotta be doing something right.

Douchebag of the Week: Russell from Survivor, because his childish and arrogant behaviour at the reunion was rude and uncalled for. You'll never win with that strategy, so stop calling yourself the greatest Survivor of all time!

This Week in Television - May 3-7, 2010

Lost
This week's episode of Lost was dark and sad, giving us three (possibly four) major character deaths, some injuries, and a Locke sob story in the flash-sideways universe. I have a possible theory that the Man in Black cannot become the smoke monster when he is wet, because after getting out of the water he pulled out a gun and shot those dudes instead of giving them the Mr. Eko treatment. Sawyer should've listened to Jack and left the bomb alone. If Richard had been there, he probably would have agreed given his dynamite experience with Jack at the Black Rock.

Glee
Whenever Mr. Schuester performs rap songs, they stand out as trying way too hard to be cool and appeal to a certain audience (namely the audience that wouldn't be caught dead watching Glee in the first place), so yeah, that never works. And obviously neither did Kurt and company's pathetic attempts at being bad, but at least that part was intended not to work. But scenes with Sue and her sister are always cute.

V
Chad Decker, you tool! I hope the Fifth Column deals with him. The best scene was Erica and Jack at the FBI station, where she was pretending to interrogate him. It's been done before, but I feel it is a step in the right direction toward the characters being cooler and more cunning.

Happy Town
Ok, so I was wrong about Sheriff Conroy killing the dude in the shack (surprised to see that answer revealed in the second episode), but at the moment I can still believe the rest of my theory to be true. It was highly ridiculous that Henley (Chloe?) was able to steal, mold, and copy a key in the amount of time that it took the old redhead to change her socks, but other parts of the episode were trippy and kind of cool, like the bird crashing through the car window at the end.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Finally, Rupert and Colby made a smart move! Candice is still as much of a traitor as she always was, so I didn't mind seeing her go even though she was on the Heroes team. And even though I would've preferred Parvati gone, Danielle going home was also acceptable. And Sandra was the only villain I would've wanted to get the immunity idol, so that was good news too. Overall an episode that succeeded in not pissing me off in what has been an increasingly aggravating season.

Flash Forward
I kind of like Bryce and Nicole as a couple, if only because Nicole's clearly liked him for a while and Bryce only knows the Japanese girl from his flash forward. The second blackout better happen soon though, because I'm not sure Flash Forward will be around much longer.

Parks and Recreation
Being so unfamiliar with sports, I was unaware that Detlef Schrempf was a real person. His name was so hilarious-sounding that I thought it was made up. One thing I enjoy about Parks and Recreation is the various story ideas explored, especially in the second season. An episode about working the crappy late shift on a local cable access telethon was a fun one and a comedy goldmine. As awesome as Ron Swanson is, I wouldn't want to watch him caning a chair either.

The Office
We don't get Dwight pranks as often anymore, so it was nice to see one again this week. And it's always great when Darryl pranks someone because he has as much fun with it as Jim does (except when it backfired, as Andy turned out to be onto something and Darryl was suddenly involved in a serious matter). Also I saw it coming when Donna revealed she was married and Michael was the "mistress".

30 Rock
The two best lines in this episode: "...like a cantaloupe and a ziploc bag of mushroom soup" (Jack describing the difference between Jenna's mother's breasts); and "It's the daytime, idiot!" (Liz yelling at the moon with Buzz Aldrin).

Fringe
This week's episode was heavier on drama than it was on action or cool/weird sci-fi stuff, but I guess we needed one to see how Peter was doing on his end. "Walternate" is back! This could be cool, but I'm really, really hoping it doesn't lead to that cliche moment that happens every time there are clones or twins or imposters in a movie/TV show. You know what I mean: Both of them standing next to each other at gunpoint, going "Shoot him, I'm the real one!" "He's lying, shoot him!" I would hope that Fringe is above that.

Hero of the Week: Jack from Lost, because I cheered when he shoved Fake Locke into the water.

Douchebag of the Week: Chad from V, for being a traitor and putting his trust in Anna just because she claims to have cured him.

This Week in Television - Apr. 26-30, 2010

Glee
Yes, Glee, I get it: be proud of who you are and don't try to be something else. I suppose we're eventually going to get episodes about each individual character learning this lesson (Sue had it last week after her Madonna makeover), but it's getting redundant. The show already has an after school special feel at times, but they could at least offer different messages instead of firing back the same one all the time. But it was cool to see Kristin Chenoweth come back, and Sue's line to Kurt and Mercedes ("How do you two not have a show on Bravo?") was classic.

V
I don't buy that Chad was going to have an aneurysm. The V's used it to gain his trust, and it clearly worked because after his supposed healing he stopped trying to challenge Anna.

Happy Town
New series! Since I don't currently watch anything on Wednesdays (Lost and Glee were both moved to Tuesday), I decided to check it out. There were parts of it that didn't work for me (anything that took place in the high school and some of the domestic scenes), but I was intrigued enough by the weird and mysterious occurrences. I understand that it is hard to create characters audiences can immediately bond with in a pilot episode so I will give it more time, but at the moment there aren't any characters I can say I care about except for Merritt Grieves (Sam Neill) and Sheriff Conroy (M.C. Gainey), and that's only because they're the most interesting. Anyway, I'm going to propose a very early theory, but I sort of hope it is wrong because it would be too easy: Grieves is the magic man, but never actually does any of the killing himself. Sheriff Conroy is the one who killed the man in the cabin at the beginning, but he doesn't remember it because Grieves has some sort of mind control over him via his wedding band, which is why Sheriff went to chop his hand off during his hypnotic rant. However I have no clue what Chloe has to do with anything.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
This show is starting to piss me off. The Heroes continue to stupidly place their trust in the Villains and screw up seemingly solid plans, and as a result I worry more and more that Parvati might win again. As I've pretty much made clear already, I am wholeheartedly against this because becoming the first person to ever win Survivor twice would ultimately make her more arrogant than Russell Hantz and Richard Hatch (hey, same initials!) put together, and I just don't believe in rewarding someone with her personality for any reason, ever.

Flash Forward
So now Janis is a good guy after all? I guess I'll have to go along with it, she was cool and it was disappointing when she was supposedly a rat, but if she's going to be a double agent I don't understand why she can't tell, say, Mark, and get his cooperation to help deceive the people who are trying to deceive the FBI so that she can gain their trust for the CIA. LOL Olivia has a stalker.

Parks and Recreation
An episode about Ron, who hates meetings, having to do 93 meetings in one day (or "a blood-soaked, nightmarish hellscape", as he calls it) can do no wrong. It was also a good contrast to Leslie's enthusiastic reaction and then her having to pile them back onto him due to her emergency gazebo situation. Also funny seeing April's kind (and wholesomely corny) parents and her clone-like sister.

The Office
I was with Pam in that Donna was interested in Michael, but only because of their interactions in a previous episode (where Michael became "Date Mike"). Had this been her first appearance I would have assumed otherwise. Jim and Pam aren't as likable when they're disagreeing with each other, but it does make the relationship more real.

30 Rock
I remember when I said the most disturbing 30 Rock ending was Frank dressed as Liz and kissing her cheek as she drooled uncontrollably, but this one may have topped it by having Jenna make out with her own impersonator. Also enjoyed Liz being "married" to Don Geiss's peacock, because it worked as a character joke pertaining to her continuing relationship misfortune.

Fringe
This week's episode was heavily advertised as being "the musical episode", but I would hardly call it as such seeing as how there are only about 3 or 4 quick moments where a character sings a few bars of a song, and then stops. Nothing in the entire episode would actually qualify as being a musical number. But since there was instrumental music in the background for most of the episode, I guess they thought they could get away with that label. Aside from that it was kind of interesting, using a film noir style for Walter's fairy tale and having things parallel the events from the series's actual plotline. But overall it was a very unnecessary episode.

Hero of the Week: Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation, simply for uttering the words "blood-soaked, nightmarish hellscape", because that is the awesomest phrase ever used to describe something mundane.

Douchebag of the Week: Parvati from Survivor for the hat trick. She didn't really do anything this week, but there were no other candidates and I just plain despise her. I was hoping she'd go before Amanda.