Glee
Wasn't expecting Regionals this soon, but when they got there I knew they were going to win because it's too early to end the season and if Regionals are now, Nationals will probably be the season finale. I'm glad Kurt brought up that Blaine gets all the solos, because the Warblers really are just his backup singers, making them a stupid team. It was pretty much the same deal with Timberlake and 'N Sync, and now nobody remembers the other four members. How did Quinn suddenly become evil again after spending an entire season-long arc turning into a better person? The original songs weren't that great except for "Loser Like Me", which I actually kind of liked. Best moment was when Brittany said her favourite song was "My Headband".
V
I guess that was the season finale. They really pulled out all the stops though! With its flaws - as all episodes of V will have - I'd have to say this was the best episode of the series so far. Ryan is dead (most likely), Diana is dead (definitely), TYLER IS DEAD! (hopefully!), and pretty much everyone except Erica is blissed. Though they haven't really established the dangers of bliss because after Tyler got it last week he exhibited no change in his usual massive tool behaviour and then was murdered. Could've set that one up better, guys. And realistically, someone would've shouted that Anna was behind Diana. I get that they wanted their horrifying reveal with just the tail piercing Diana's torso, but obviously the giant crowd of people would've seen her walk in. I don't see V coming back for a third season, but if they do then they made a smart move by sort of resetting everything, letting the network and any remaining viewers know that it could be entirely different next season.
Survivor: Redemption Island
I would've thought Stephanie would be more dangerous to keep than Krista. She seems more evil and more strategic. Rob switching the idol clues just because it's fun to mess with the others was funny.
Community
Not the funniest episode this week, but it had its moments, like Chang trying to saw the custody papers to shreds with a handsaw and wearing the stereotypical 1950's dad outfit, Britta being so uncool that her attempt at singing a Britney Spears song came out as "Hit me with your genie's bottle", and Annie presenting Shirley and Chang with a letter from the doll manufacturer promising to expand their diversity to Asian dolls. Pierce and Annie were kept to a minimum this episode, which I suppose is fair because they've both had a couple of episodes this season largely focusing on them, and characters like Britta and Chang don't get many major stories so they got their screen time.
Parks and Recreation
This episode almost felt like it should have been a season finale, or at least a "semi-finale" before that little break we just had, because they'd been building up to the harvest festival for a few episodes and it was this big important event. We also got to see Joan Callamezzo and Perd Hapley again, making the episode feel even bigger. Great moments: Ron yelling at everyone on the ferris wheel, "The atrocities are in blue", the Native shaman's phony ceremonies, the excitement everyone feels over Li'l Sebastian (who has an honorary university degree), Larry Bird's aunt being a special guest, the crazy CGI reenactment on the news followed by the shaman stating "That's exactly how it happened", and pretty much everything with Andy and April. Also the big overhead shot at the end was cool, again giving the episode a larger than average feel.
30 Rock
That was a neat idea, making the whole episode like an episode of Angie's reality show. I still find her annoying, but she didn't hog 100% of the screen time, and she did provide one of the best moments of the episode. I am of course talking about the quick cut to her saying "Ham!" But it was a perfect parody of all those terrible reality shows. If Angie and Tracy Jordan were real people, they would totally make a reality show about Angie (part of the nauseating trend is that a lot of them are about relatives of famous people, not even the famous people themselves), and it would totally be called "Queen of Jordan," and she would totally act like a diva and have her posse of superficial drama queen friends. Hating those shows just makes me enjoy this episode more. Jack constantly making it easy for the show to label him was funny, and I also loved the randomness of Kenneth finding someone's lost glove and then realizing it was his and wanting the other one.
Fringe
Hmm, I was wondering how long the William Bell thing would last, because it doesn't quite seem fair to sideline the main character in favour of another, even if Walter and Peter are more interesting characters than Olivia anyway. I can understand Peter's frustration, not just because he, too loses Olivia again, but because it's simply disturbing seeing your girlfriend embodied by an elderly male scientist. I actually thought they might just use that suicidal woman as a host for Bell, but I guess that would be cruel, as she wouldn't make it to the afterlife to see her family. Looking forward to the day when Lincoln comes back and Olivia recognizes him from having known the alt-version. Probably won't be anything significant, actually, just might be an interesting little moment.
Hero of the Week: Evil Lisa (maybe we'll call her Visa?) from V, for finally killing one of the worst characters in television history. However, if the show comes back and it turns out he survived, this award will be retroactively stripped and given to Li'l Sebastian. Not even Visa would kill that little fella!
Douchebag of the Week: Grizz from 30 Rock, for not being DotCom's best friend. That's cold, dude.
Showing posts with label v. Show all posts
Showing posts with label v. Show all posts
Monday, March 21, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
This Week in Television - Mar. 7-11, 2011
Glee
I don't know if a lack of sex education is actually a problem in the U.S. or if they were just trying to point out how younger people are having more sex, but I think sex ed is supposed to be taught before anyone gets to high school. They taught us the basics of what sex is in elementary school, and then STDs, birth control, and genital anatomy in junior high. And anyway, word gets around so how could someone not know those things by the time they get to high school? Even Brittany would've moved on from the old stork story by then (does anyone even tell that to their kids anymore?). The thing about Brittany, though, is that she is supposed to be the Ralph Wiggum of Glee, regularly showcasing her severe naivete and lack of knowledge with stupid one-liners, but then whenever she talks about her feelings, like this week and the Britney Spears episode, she becomes fairly coherent and no longer sounds as dumb as a bag of misshapen rocks. While I understand that they probably want to develop the character beyond a few dumb lines, it doesn't feel consistent to me. I laughed during the "Afternoon Delight" number (mostly because of the pictures of desserts in the background), and when Mr. Schue referred to himself as "an expert at romance", because it was so cheesy and clearly designed to make the female viewers swoon.
V
LOL at Anna blissing Tyler. Now he literally is a tool! I hope they overthrow Anna though, just because I'd like to see what would happen, and it might make Anna more interesting if she had to fight her way back to the top. It would be funny if Diana was playing them and turned out to be even more evil than Anna. It's also funny how easy it is for someone to say "thousands/millions of people could die!" and then cut to Jack looking distressed because he's the priest.
Survivor: Redemption Island
I thought Russell would last a little longer at Redemption Island before going home, until I saw the promo for this episode where they said "Russell is at Redemption Island, and what happens will SHOCK you!" and then it was obvious. Every time they promise that something will be shocking, it makes it less shocking. Thanks for spoiling it, douchebags. "Loose cannon" is the perfect way to describe Phillip, though.
Fringe
As much as I enjoy seeing Jorge Garcia show up, the opening scene didn't really feel like Fringe (maybe it's just when Walter gets stoned, as the musical episode where he partakes in spliffs and special brownies also didn't feel like Fringe), but it served its purpose in pointing out Bell's office to Walter. Overall it was still a cool episode. At first I thought it was just going to be about gravity boots, but it turned out they were coming off onto the ground, not the ceiling. Never thought about fixing paraplegia by floating someone up and then weighing down their feet. Though I think they already did a "hurting people to find a cure" story. Or maybe that was something else I saw fairly recently, I can't remember anymore... Nina seemed less than thrilled about Walter going through Bell's things. I don't really trust her, she's seemed shady from the beginning and always seems to be withholding as much information as she can. Anna Torv trying to sound like Leonard Nemoy was funny, but I suppose it worked.
Hero of the Week: Most of the time this goes to someone from NBC's awesome Thursday comedies, but without them the pickings can be slim. I guess I'll say Miss Holliday (Gwyneth Paltrow) from Glee, because she would be a pretty cool teacher.
Douchebag of the Week: Dr. Krick (Alan Ruck) from Fringe. Probably should have at least asked his son what he wanted before spending all that time on a harmful cure.
I don't know if a lack of sex education is actually a problem in the U.S. or if they were just trying to point out how younger people are having more sex, but I think sex ed is supposed to be taught before anyone gets to high school. They taught us the basics of what sex is in elementary school, and then STDs, birth control, and genital anatomy in junior high. And anyway, word gets around so how could someone not know those things by the time they get to high school? Even Brittany would've moved on from the old stork story by then (does anyone even tell that to their kids anymore?). The thing about Brittany, though, is that she is supposed to be the Ralph Wiggum of Glee, regularly showcasing her severe naivete and lack of knowledge with stupid one-liners, but then whenever she talks about her feelings, like this week and the Britney Spears episode, she becomes fairly coherent and no longer sounds as dumb as a bag of misshapen rocks. While I understand that they probably want to develop the character beyond a few dumb lines, it doesn't feel consistent to me. I laughed during the "Afternoon Delight" number (mostly because of the pictures of desserts in the background), and when Mr. Schue referred to himself as "an expert at romance", because it was so cheesy and clearly designed to make the female viewers swoon.
V
LOL at Anna blissing Tyler. Now he literally is a tool! I hope they overthrow Anna though, just because I'd like to see what would happen, and it might make Anna more interesting if she had to fight her way back to the top. It would be funny if Diana was playing them and turned out to be even more evil than Anna. It's also funny how easy it is for someone to say "thousands/millions of people could die!" and then cut to Jack looking distressed because he's the priest.
Survivor: Redemption Island
I thought Russell would last a little longer at Redemption Island before going home, until I saw the promo for this episode where they said "Russell is at Redemption Island, and what happens will SHOCK you!" and then it was obvious. Every time they promise that something will be shocking, it makes it less shocking. Thanks for spoiling it, douchebags. "Loose cannon" is the perfect way to describe Phillip, though.
Fringe
As much as I enjoy seeing Jorge Garcia show up, the opening scene didn't really feel like Fringe (maybe it's just when Walter gets stoned, as the musical episode where he partakes in spliffs and special brownies also didn't feel like Fringe), but it served its purpose in pointing out Bell's office to Walter. Overall it was still a cool episode. At first I thought it was just going to be about gravity boots, but it turned out they were coming off onto the ground, not the ceiling. Never thought about fixing paraplegia by floating someone up and then weighing down their feet. Though I think they already did a "hurting people to find a cure" story. Or maybe that was something else I saw fairly recently, I can't remember anymore... Nina seemed less than thrilled about Walter going through Bell's things. I don't really trust her, she's seemed shady from the beginning and always seems to be withholding as much information as she can. Anna Torv trying to sound like Leonard Nemoy was funny, but I suppose it worked.
Hero of the Week: Most of the time this goes to someone from NBC's awesome Thursday comedies, but without them the pickings can be slim. I guess I'll say Miss Holliday (Gwyneth Paltrow) from Glee, because she would be a pretty cool teacher.
Douchebag of the Week: Dr. Krick (Alan Ruck) from Fringe. Probably should have at least asked his son what he wanted before spending all that time on a harmful cure.
Friday, March 4, 2011
This Week in Television - Feb. 28-Mar. 4, 2011
The Cape
Vince's Australian gangster impression wasn't very... impressive. He doesn't do "careless tough guy" well, and I caught more than one flaw in his accent. But at least they kept his family to a bare minimum this episode.
V
The stuff with the little girl with the strong immune system and the live aboard program was weak. "Let's live on the alien spaceship now that I know my daughter might have ONE friend who she's never met and may not even get along with! That's preferable to her living on earth where she has 6 billion people to choose from!" Then we have Tyler catching Lisa with Raphael, and instead of asking a simple question like "What's going on here?", he storms in and does nothing but repeatedly shove the guy like an ape. Do the writers even want viewers to like Tyler? And the Erica/Hobbes thing seems rushed, as the "sexual tension" only showed up last week when they had their cliche moment of laying next to each other and looking into each other's eyes before getting embarrassed and sitting up. When the series began, I actually thought they were going to pair her up with Jack.
Survivor: Redemption Island
So they finally got Russell out. I'm not necessarily optimistic for his chances of dominating Redemption Island (he has won individual immunity challenges in the past, but was never known as a challenge master), but I am quite positive that he'll be around long enough for Boston Rob to be voted off just so they can have their showdown. And, you know, if he does make it back into the game, maybe the jury will actually respect him enough to let him win this time.
Hero of the Week: Hard to say, because it was a shorter week and nobody stood out as being awesome... I suppose I'll go with Lisa from V, because she's probably the most likable character on that show now.
Douchebag of the Week: Tyler from V. Sorry for the lack of surprise.
Vince's Australian gangster impression wasn't very... impressive. He doesn't do "careless tough guy" well, and I caught more than one flaw in his accent. But at least they kept his family to a bare minimum this episode.
V
The stuff with the little girl with the strong immune system and the live aboard program was weak. "Let's live on the alien spaceship now that I know my daughter might have ONE friend who she's never met and may not even get along with! That's preferable to her living on earth where she has 6 billion people to choose from!" Then we have Tyler catching Lisa with Raphael, and instead of asking a simple question like "What's going on here?", he storms in and does nothing but repeatedly shove the guy like an ape. Do the writers even want viewers to like Tyler? And the Erica/Hobbes thing seems rushed, as the "sexual tension" only showed up last week when they had their cliche moment of laying next to each other and looking into each other's eyes before getting embarrassed and sitting up. When the series began, I actually thought they were going to pair her up with Jack.
Survivor: Redemption Island
So they finally got Russell out. I'm not necessarily optimistic for his chances of dominating Redemption Island (he has won individual immunity challenges in the past, but was never known as a challenge master), but I am quite positive that he'll be around long enough for Boston Rob to be voted off just so they can have their showdown. And, you know, if he does make it back into the game, maybe the jury will actually respect him enough to let him win this time.
Hero of the Week: Hard to say, because it was a shorter week and nobody stood out as being awesome... I suppose I'll go with Lisa from V, because she's probably the most likable character on that show now.
Douchebag of the Week: Tyler from V. Sorry for the lack of surprise.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
This Week in Television - Feb. 21-25, 2011
The Cape
I have to admit, I was bored. This episode was trying to be creepy and unsettling with the Orwell/Lich stuff, but it just didn't work out that way, and I almost thought they were trying to rip off Inception with Orwell's dream sequences. At one point she mentioned that she didn't remember how she got there, and she kept looking over at a door that I assume all of her secrets would have been behind if someone was pulling an extraction job on her. Also I am realizing that Trip is kind of a spoiled kid. If you look at all the moments with him, he bosses his parents around and always gets what he wants. No wonder I don't care for him.
Glee
Rachel's headband song was kind of funny once I realized what it was, and this actually turned out to be one of the better episodes. I attribute the principal referring to Ke$ha as "Key Dollar Sign Ha" not to his ethnicity but to being an uncool principal. It's funnier and less racist to think of it that way. I laughed when Blaine kissed Rachel for the second time and said "Yup, I'm 100% gay", because it felt like a cheesy and blatant way for the writers to say "Don't worry, Kurt fans, Blaine's experimentation is over forever! Already!" If Mr. Schue starts dating Coach Bieste, that'll just be...gross.
V
I enjoyed this episode, but my one problem was when Erica and Hobbes let the doctor jump out the window. They both have guns, and neither of them think to shoot her in the legs to stop her from running away? But I liked Lisa playing a larger role in this episode, because after discovering her grandmother and turning completely against her mother, she has become one of the more interesting characters on the show. Ryan shouldn't be alive, though - okay, a second problem I just thought of. He was inside the building that exploded last week, and this week he just shows up all "I survived!" without even a throwaway explanation like "V's are resistant to fire" or something.
Survivor: Redemption Island
Phillip may not go on about warriors and samurais like Coach, but he does love to talk about animal instincts and manliness. So weird that there was a blindside and an immunity idol played in the second episode though. Who does that?
Community
Not necessarily the funniest episode, but an accurate representation of how fickle school politics are (or even regular politics, but school politics especially). The DVD will be good for catching the myriad of written jokes flashed all over the screen in the Troy/Abed coverage segments. Jeff's Real World audition tape was brutal because even in 1997 the George Michael impersonation would have been too late to be cool. Giving Abed a possible love interest who may also have Asperger's was interesting. Maybe they can double date with Troy and the librarian.
The Office
Todd Packer can be funny to have around once in a while, but if Michael's going to be leaving then so should he, and as Holly turns Michael into a better man, it feels right that he would outgrow that sleazebag. Jim and Dwight working together is always fun, as is Andy and Pam, who has fallen into a cute version of corruption that basically only screws the company but benefits her co-workers, so it's not an evil corruption. I didn't agree with Andy taking Erin's computer, but it may have been the way it was edited, because they made it look like he only wanted a better computer to watch internet videos, not to do his job. Perhaps he did.
Parks and Recreation
Poor Ron. By now they've built up his love of food - especially meat - to make his agony believable and effective when the steak house closed down. Also poor Tom for being shut out by the arrogant fragrance guy, even if "Tommy Fresh" did smell terrible. But Andy and April's first date was really fun and sweet, and the Chris/Ann break-up plot twist was a smart resolution that worked perfectly because of their characters. Another strong episode!
30 Rock
I liked the social commentary about female comedians, and there is some truth that some sitcoms probably hire certain actresses for their looks and not their comedic talent. Cirie on this show probably would be one of them, except her character actually is supposed to be the hot one and was never meant to provide humour beyond a few lines about believing Liz to be a married mother, so they snuck by on that one. But a woman (or anyone, really) doing baby talk is not sexy, it's just creepy/weird. And Chloe Moretz continues her coolness streak by getting into childish arguments with Jack Donaghy (“I hate the ocean; it’s for tools.” “The ocean is awesome and for winners. You’re for tools.”)
Fringe
I don't really like the idea that Peter and Olivia met as children. It's something The Simpsons did more than once in later episodes with Homer and Marge that undercut and destroyed the great original story of their meeting in high school. You could say it makes it more romantic because it's like they were fated to be together, but that kind of thing just has the opposite effect on me, especially since there is no explanation for why they don't remember each other. Peter didn't even remember his kidnapping. But that being said, I do like when Fringe goes back to the 80's, and there was at least an explanation for how Walternate found out about the other universe.
Hero of the Week: It's a tie! April and Andy from Parks and Recreation, for giving the money back at the end of their wonderful date.
Douchebag of the Week: Trip from The Cape. That passively spoiled brat.
I have to admit, I was bored. This episode was trying to be creepy and unsettling with the Orwell/Lich stuff, but it just didn't work out that way, and I almost thought they were trying to rip off Inception with Orwell's dream sequences. At one point she mentioned that she didn't remember how she got there, and she kept looking over at a door that I assume all of her secrets would have been behind if someone was pulling an extraction job on her. Also I am realizing that Trip is kind of a spoiled kid. If you look at all the moments with him, he bosses his parents around and always gets what he wants. No wonder I don't care for him.
Glee
Rachel's headband song was kind of funny once I realized what it was, and this actually turned out to be one of the better episodes. I attribute the principal referring to Ke$ha as "Key Dollar Sign Ha" not to his ethnicity but to being an uncool principal. It's funnier and less racist to think of it that way. I laughed when Blaine kissed Rachel for the second time and said "Yup, I'm 100% gay", because it felt like a cheesy and blatant way for the writers to say "Don't worry, Kurt fans, Blaine's experimentation is over forever! Already!" If Mr. Schue starts dating Coach Bieste, that'll just be...gross.
V
I enjoyed this episode, but my one problem was when Erica and Hobbes let the doctor jump out the window. They both have guns, and neither of them think to shoot her in the legs to stop her from running away? But I liked Lisa playing a larger role in this episode, because after discovering her grandmother and turning completely against her mother, she has become one of the more interesting characters on the show. Ryan shouldn't be alive, though - okay, a second problem I just thought of. He was inside the building that exploded last week, and this week he just shows up all "I survived!" without even a throwaway explanation like "V's are resistant to fire" or something.
Survivor: Redemption Island
Phillip may not go on about warriors and samurais like Coach, but he does love to talk about animal instincts and manliness. So weird that there was a blindside and an immunity idol played in the second episode though. Who does that?
Community
Not necessarily the funniest episode, but an accurate representation of how fickle school politics are (or even regular politics, but school politics especially). The DVD will be good for catching the myriad of written jokes flashed all over the screen in the Troy/Abed coverage segments. Jeff's Real World audition tape was brutal because even in 1997 the George Michael impersonation would have been too late to be cool. Giving Abed a possible love interest who may also have Asperger's was interesting. Maybe they can double date with Troy and the librarian.
The Office
Todd Packer can be funny to have around once in a while, but if Michael's going to be leaving then so should he, and as Holly turns Michael into a better man, it feels right that he would outgrow that sleazebag. Jim and Dwight working together is always fun, as is Andy and Pam, who has fallen into a cute version of corruption that basically only screws the company but benefits her co-workers, so it's not an evil corruption. I didn't agree with Andy taking Erin's computer, but it may have been the way it was edited, because they made it look like he only wanted a better computer to watch internet videos, not to do his job. Perhaps he did.
Parks and Recreation
Poor Ron. By now they've built up his love of food - especially meat - to make his agony believable and effective when the steak house closed down. Also poor Tom for being shut out by the arrogant fragrance guy, even if "Tommy Fresh" did smell terrible. But Andy and April's first date was really fun and sweet, and the Chris/Ann break-up plot twist was a smart resolution that worked perfectly because of their characters. Another strong episode!
30 Rock
I liked the social commentary about female comedians, and there is some truth that some sitcoms probably hire certain actresses for their looks and not their comedic talent. Cirie on this show probably would be one of them, except her character actually is supposed to be the hot one and was never meant to provide humour beyond a few lines about believing Liz to be a married mother, so they snuck by on that one. But a woman (or anyone, really) doing baby talk is not sexy, it's just creepy/weird. And Chloe Moretz continues her coolness streak by getting into childish arguments with Jack Donaghy (“I hate the ocean; it’s for tools.” “The ocean is awesome and for winners. You’re for tools.”)
Fringe
I don't really like the idea that Peter and Olivia met as children. It's something The Simpsons did more than once in later episodes with Homer and Marge that undercut and destroyed the great original story of their meeting in high school. You could say it makes it more romantic because it's like they were fated to be together, but that kind of thing just has the opposite effect on me, especially since there is no explanation for why they don't remember each other. Peter didn't even remember his kidnapping. But that being said, I do like when Fringe goes back to the 80's, and there was at least an explanation for how Walternate found out about the other universe.
Hero of the Week: It's a tie! April and Andy from Parks and Recreation, for giving the money back at the end of their wonderful date.
Douchebag of the Week: Trip from The Cape. That passively spoiled brat.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
This Week in Television - Feb. 14-18, 2011
The Cape
This episode just ended up feeling like a Fringe rip-off, with Orwell playing Olivia, Cape playing Peter, and the circus folk playing Walter. And I would think it would be a really bad idea to seek the help of a man who betrayed you and now works for your nemesis. Even if he is chief of police.
Glee
Wow, were they hinting that Glee is finally going to do an original song for once? They should really consider it; the combination of the Justin Bieber tributes and Lauren's TERRIBLE performance (she really can't sing) in this week's episode made my ears die a little inside. And I can believe that Sue might enjoy singing with the sick kids at the hospital, but having her perform a song with the glee club was a stretch. But I like the idea of her coaching the third team, and I hope she crushes the other two at Regionals.
V
I liked that we got a snippet of back story on Hobbes with the mention of a mysterious woman he apparently cares a lot about, but I don't like that they pretty much just recycled the Ryan blackmail arc and applied it to him. And I don't like that they killed Tyler's dad. Not because I liked the character, but because it's just going to make Tyler even whinier and less likable, and because once again I was hoping it would be Tyler as the collateral damage (alas, he arrived on the scene after the gunfire ended). But Erica going into raging assault mode at the end was cool, and I hope it makes the next episode decent.
Survivor: Redemption Island
Wow, only the first episode and Phillip is already the new Coach. I can see those two being good buddies in a future All-Stars season. I like how they put a question mark after the "Former Federal Agent" in his description. And I feel like the only reason they added the "redemption island" twist is for an inevitable Rob/Russell showdown on that island after they're both voted off.
Community
I knew this week was going to be an episode revolving around Pierce in the hospital, but I didn't know it was going to be a documentary parody. And I thought it might get too sentimental, but instead they turned it into Pierce using the opportunity to mess with everyone, which was great. Last season Abed used his knowledge of the group to predict everyone in his films, and this is sort of Pierce's version of that, knowing exactly how to push everyone's buttons, though I guess he has no beef with Annie or Abed. All of the LeVar Burton stuff was hilarious too, and I loved the shout-out to "the unjust cancellation of Firefly". Awesome episode.
The Office
Oh. My. God. I never would have predicted that season 7 would produce one of the funniest episodes of the entire series. The table reading of the script in a past episode was another of the season's most memorable moments, but seeing it produced as a "so stupid its epically awesome" movie directed by Michael Scott and starring his co-workers? Please tell me the full, uncut version of Threat Level Midnight will be on the season 7 DVD. Loved all of the stupid little details, like the newspaper clippings that only seemed to establish Michael Scarn as someone who saves sporting events; the photoshopped pictures of him with "Catherine Zeta-Scarn"; Darryl leaning into it as Michael smashed the Abe Lincoln painting down on his head; the terrible "Go PUCK yourself!" line, and various misused hero catchphrases; Scarn's "emotional" moments as he remembers dead loved ones; Toby's head repeatedly exploding for Michael's own personal satisfaction, etc. Every bit was fantastic.
Parks and Recreation
Nice to see Ben getting a chance to go crazy for once instead of playing the straight man. Didn't really like the Ira and the Douche gag though, because the shock jocks with sound effects thing was already done on Family Guy, and possibly even an old episode of The Simpsons but I don't remember for sure because it's been a while. The Andy and April stuff was, again, sweet, and Ron typing out every word he knows on the annoying typewriter was classic.
30 Rock
Though I find Tracy hilarious, him being gone gives more screen time to the often benched supporting characters like Pete and Frank, in an amusing little shout-out to famous band feuds. Glad Liz's storyline worked out the way it did, because her boyfriends always lead to funny stuff, and Jack's was only good in the payoff scene where he does his best impression of his daughter's nanny at an NBC/Kabletown negotiation.
Fringe
As much as I love Fringe's ongoing serialized storyline, I didn't really like that this episode's "monster of the week" story took a back seat to the Peter/Olivia romance. Actually I guess what I mean to say is niether of the two parts really interested me. I like that Olivia is making an effort to have a good time with Peter, but much like last week's pregnancy reveal, it didn't really have to take the entire episode. Or maybe it did, might've been too fast without this one step.
Hero of the Week: Michael Scott (or perhaps I should say Agent Michael Scarn) from The Office, because Threat Level Midnight was, for me, the best thing all week.
Douchebag of the Week: Phillip from Survivor. At least Coach's ridiculous personality was amusing, but this guy is a dick.
This episode just ended up feeling like a Fringe rip-off, with Orwell playing Olivia, Cape playing Peter, and the circus folk playing Walter. And I would think it would be a really bad idea to seek the help of a man who betrayed you and now works for your nemesis. Even if he is chief of police.
Glee
Wow, were they hinting that Glee is finally going to do an original song for once? They should really consider it; the combination of the Justin Bieber tributes and Lauren's TERRIBLE performance (she really can't sing) in this week's episode made my ears die a little inside. And I can believe that Sue might enjoy singing with the sick kids at the hospital, but having her perform a song with the glee club was a stretch. But I like the idea of her coaching the third team, and I hope she crushes the other two at Regionals.
V
I liked that we got a snippet of back story on Hobbes with the mention of a mysterious woman he apparently cares a lot about, but I don't like that they pretty much just recycled the Ryan blackmail arc and applied it to him. And I don't like that they killed Tyler's dad. Not because I liked the character, but because it's just going to make Tyler even whinier and less likable, and because once again I was hoping it would be Tyler as the collateral damage (alas, he arrived on the scene after the gunfire ended). But Erica going into raging assault mode at the end was cool, and I hope it makes the next episode decent.
Survivor: Redemption Island
Wow, only the first episode and Phillip is already the new Coach. I can see those two being good buddies in a future All-Stars season. I like how they put a question mark after the "Former Federal Agent" in his description. And I feel like the only reason they added the "redemption island" twist is for an inevitable Rob/Russell showdown on that island after they're both voted off.
Community
I knew this week was going to be an episode revolving around Pierce in the hospital, but I didn't know it was going to be a documentary parody. And I thought it might get too sentimental, but instead they turned it into Pierce using the opportunity to mess with everyone, which was great. Last season Abed used his knowledge of the group to predict everyone in his films, and this is sort of Pierce's version of that, knowing exactly how to push everyone's buttons, though I guess he has no beef with Annie or Abed. All of the LeVar Burton stuff was hilarious too, and I loved the shout-out to "the unjust cancellation of Firefly". Awesome episode.
The Office
Oh. My. God. I never would have predicted that season 7 would produce one of the funniest episodes of the entire series. The table reading of the script in a past episode was another of the season's most memorable moments, but seeing it produced as a "so stupid its epically awesome" movie directed by Michael Scott and starring his co-workers? Please tell me the full, uncut version of Threat Level Midnight will be on the season 7 DVD. Loved all of the stupid little details, like the newspaper clippings that only seemed to establish Michael Scarn as someone who saves sporting events; the photoshopped pictures of him with "Catherine Zeta-Scarn"; Darryl leaning into it as Michael smashed the Abe Lincoln painting down on his head; the terrible "Go PUCK yourself!" line, and various misused hero catchphrases; Scarn's "emotional" moments as he remembers dead loved ones; Toby's head repeatedly exploding for Michael's own personal satisfaction, etc. Every bit was fantastic.
Parks and Recreation
Nice to see Ben getting a chance to go crazy for once instead of playing the straight man. Didn't really like the Ira and the Douche gag though, because the shock jocks with sound effects thing was already done on Family Guy, and possibly even an old episode of The Simpsons but I don't remember for sure because it's been a while. The Andy and April stuff was, again, sweet, and Ron typing out every word he knows on the annoying typewriter was classic.
30 Rock
Though I find Tracy hilarious, him being gone gives more screen time to the often benched supporting characters like Pete and Frank, in an amusing little shout-out to famous band feuds. Glad Liz's storyline worked out the way it did, because her boyfriends always lead to funny stuff, and Jack's was only good in the payoff scene where he does his best impression of his daughter's nanny at an NBC/Kabletown negotiation.
Fringe
As much as I love Fringe's ongoing serialized storyline, I didn't really like that this episode's "monster of the week" story took a back seat to the Peter/Olivia romance. Actually I guess what I mean to say is niether of the two parts really interested me. I like that Olivia is making an effort to have a good time with Peter, but much like last week's pregnancy reveal, it didn't really have to take the entire episode. Or maybe it did, might've been too fast without this one step.
Hero of the Week: Michael Scott (or perhaps I should say Agent Michael Scarn) from The Office, because Threat Level Midnight was, for me, the best thing all week.
Douchebag of the Week: Phillip from Survivor. At least Coach's ridiculous personality was amusing, but this guy is a dick.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
This Week in Television - Feb. 7-11, 2011
The Cape
I liked the idea of Fleming hiring a duo to kill The Cape, and how Goggles and Hicks were like a bizarro Cape and Orwell, but they seemed like amateurs. I don't see the point in tagging The Cape with a tracking device when they could've just sniped him (and Scales) in the face. It was a secluded location and everything, it's not like the timing was bad. Then Hicks tries to fight The Cape (who has broken ribs) hand-to-hand and, from what I could tell, does not a scratch of damage. Come on, guys, I get that your hero needs to win at the end of every episode, but you could at least make it look like there's a chance the villain might prevail. But in spite of my complaining I did like this episode more than some of the others, for the Goggles and Hicks characters.
Glee
Not realistic that Puck would want to date the heavy girl. Not in high school, anyway. In real life she would be one of the least popular students in the entire school, no one would want to date her and everyone would make fun of her. That's just how high school is. It's not a place where people throw slushies on you for singing even though you're good looking; good looking people are NEVER unpopular. It's not even a place where all of the cheerleaders and football players are automatically popular. That's like a 1950's high school. They should call Glee a fantasy instead of a comedy. Maybe I'm just ranting because there was no Sue Sylvester in this episode.
V
I actually liked this episode. Finally they make a plan to assassinate Anna, even though I knew it wasn't going to pan out. But I was pleading with my TV for them to accidentally shoot Tyler when Marcus called him up on stage. The fact that they didn't was the biggest disappointment of the week. I did really like Chad getting a partner so that he can play devil's advocate and let the other person attack the Vistors while he stays under Anna's trust by pretending to defend them. But Ryan is being too much of a tool. Was the phrasing not suspicious when Anna said "only my bliss, and my bliss alone, can ease her pain?" There's probably some other cure she's keeping from him.
Community
The Troy and Abed story felt a little underdeveloped, but I did enjoy them yelling "BOOKS!" at the hot librarian. The Britta storyline worked the only way it could have worked: because the other girl was exactly as self-righteous as Britta, and because it tied well into Pierce's ongoing assumption that she is a lesbian. And now that Pierce has OD'ed, everyone will probably forgive him for being a douche in the last couple episodes. Nice to see "streets ahead" used again, too.
The Office
The cold opening with Andy pummeling Darryl's stomach as Darryl looks into the camera with a tear in his eye is something that should be made into an animated GIF and passed around the internet. Michael and Holly varied from gross to funny, and Jim and Pam being drunk and looking for a place to have sex was much more fun than all of the baby stories they've been having lately.
Parks and Recreation
"Ron and Tammy" was one of the standout episodes from last year in my opinion, so I was happy to see another episode involving their ridiculous PDA (as opposed to Michael and Holly's slightly more lovey-dovey PDA on The Office, Ron and Tammy's is just wildly sexual). Ron in cornrows and a dissected mustache was funny, but my favourite part was the return of Burt Macklin, Andy's FBI alias whom I'd forgotten about until his name was mentioned in a sweet attempt at a favour to April. And calzones are awesome, dammit!
30 Rock
The exchange between Jack and Liz in the cold opening was amazing, from Jack stating he doesn't sleep on planes because he "doesn't want to get Incepted" to Liz and Jack predicting each other with handwritten notes in envelopes, to Liz having a pencil sticking out of her fly. The rest of the episode was just okay, but the epic beginning makes up for that. The Liz and Carol story didn't have much room for jokes and only served as a way to end their relationship, and the one quick line explaining the delay (traffic on the runway) didn't seem enough to justify what I assume was an extremely long wait for the passengers as Carol strung them along. The joke about the "Gals on the Town" sitcom pilot, and its theme song and B-list cast, was really funny though.
Fringe
I wasn't expecting to have an episode in the alt-universe again so soon, and at first there didn't seem to be a reason for it, until the reveal that Fauxlivia is pregnant, increasing the stakes for Peter's future decision. But while Fauxlivia is probably a little more interesting than Olivia, the other universe has kooky Walter, Peter, and Broyles (and I suppose Nina, because I don't recall an alt-Nina), and thus is more entertaining overall.
Hero of the Week: Jack from 30 Rock, for predicting Liz's prediction in the opening and letting his daughter be born in Canada.
Douchebag of the Week: Ryan from V. Just grab your daughter and run already!
I liked the idea of Fleming hiring a duo to kill The Cape, and how Goggles and Hicks were like a bizarro Cape and Orwell, but they seemed like amateurs. I don't see the point in tagging The Cape with a tracking device when they could've just sniped him (and Scales) in the face. It was a secluded location and everything, it's not like the timing was bad. Then Hicks tries to fight The Cape (who has broken ribs) hand-to-hand and, from what I could tell, does not a scratch of damage. Come on, guys, I get that your hero needs to win at the end of every episode, but you could at least make it look like there's a chance the villain might prevail. But in spite of my complaining I did like this episode more than some of the others, for the Goggles and Hicks characters.
Glee
Not realistic that Puck would want to date the heavy girl. Not in high school, anyway. In real life she would be one of the least popular students in the entire school, no one would want to date her and everyone would make fun of her. That's just how high school is. It's not a place where people throw slushies on you for singing even though you're good looking; good looking people are NEVER unpopular. It's not even a place where all of the cheerleaders and football players are automatically popular. That's like a 1950's high school. They should call Glee a fantasy instead of a comedy. Maybe I'm just ranting because there was no Sue Sylvester in this episode.
V
I actually liked this episode. Finally they make a plan to assassinate Anna, even though I knew it wasn't going to pan out. But I was pleading with my TV for them to accidentally shoot Tyler when Marcus called him up on stage. The fact that they didn't was the biggest disappointment of the week. I did really like Chad getting a partner so that he can play devil's advocate and let the other person attack the Vistors while he stays under Anna's trust by pretending to defend them. But Ryan is being too much of a tool. Was the phrasing not suspicious when Anna said "only my bliss, and my bliss alone, can ease her pain?" There's probably some other cure she's keeping from him.
Community
The Troy and Abed story felt a little underdeveloped, but I did enjoy them yelling "BOOKS!" at the hot librarian. The Britta storyline worked the only way it could have worked: because the other girl was exactly as self-righteous as Britta, and because it tied well into Pierce's ongoing assumption that she is a lesbian. And now that Pierce has OD'ed, everyone will probably forgive him for being a douche in the last couple episodes. Nice to see "streets ahead" used again, too.
The Office
The cold opening with Andy pummeling Darryl's stomach as Darryl looks into the camera with a tear in his eye is something that should be made into an animated GIF and passed around the internet. Michael and Holly varied from gross to funny, and Jim and Pam being drunk and looking for a place to have sex was much more fun than all of the baby stories they've been having lately.
Parks and Recreation
"Ron and Tammy" was one of the standout episodes from last year in my opinion, so I was happy to see another episode involving their ridiculous PDA (as opposed to Michael and Holly's slightly more lovey-dovey PDA on The Office, Ron and Tammy's is just wildly sexual). Ron in cornrows and a dissected mustache was funny, but my favourite part was the return of Burt Macklin, Andy's FBI alias whom I'd forgotten about until his name was mentioned in a sweet attempt at a favour to April. And calzones are awesome, dammit!
30 Rock
The exchange between Jack and Liz in the cold opening was amazing, from Jack stating he doesn't sleep on planes because he "doesn't want to get Incepted" to Liz and Jack predicting each other with handwritten notes in envelopes, to Liz having a pencil sticking out of her fly. The rest of the episode was just okay, but the epic beginning makes up for that. The Liz and Carol story didn't have much room for jokes and only served as a way to end their relationship, and the one quick line explaining the delay (traffic on the runway) didn't seem enough to justify what I assume was an extremely long wait for the passengers as Carol strung them along. The joke about the "Gals on the Town" sitcom pilot, and its theme song and B-list cast, was really funny though.
Fringe
I wasn't expecting to have an episode in the alt-universe again so soon, and at first there didn't seem to be a reason for it, until the reveal that Fauxlivia is pregnant, increasing the stakes for Peter's future decision. But while Fauxlivia is probably a little more interesting than Olivia, the other universe has kooky Walter, Peter, and Broyles (and I suppose Nina, because I don't recall an alt-Nina), and thus is more entertaining overall.
Hero of the Week: Jack from 30 Rock, for predicting Liz's prediction in the opening and letting his daughter be born in Canada.
Douchebag of the Week: Ryan from V. Just grab your daughter and run already!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
This Week in Television - Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2011
The Cape
I didn't find Dice to be a very interesting villain. Ironically, I knew she was going to tell Fleming "You're the one who's going to kill my father" before she even said it, just because it seemed like an obvious plotline. And I didn't like that The Cape and Orwell were somehow "blind spots" in Dice's predictions, because there was really no reason or explanation for it. Just a really easy deus ex machina for the writers to make her lose in the end, because otherwise she would always be a step ahead of them and thus undefeatable. If you're going to include a character like that, you have to either explain their defeat better, let them win, or not include them at all. Also The Cape should've just ziplined across the rope or something instead of going through the trouble of trying to master tightrope walking in a short period of time.
V
This episode was boring (not to mention aggravating thanks to the massive tool that is Tyler Evans) but it got a little more interesting toward the end. Don't really like when V goes into religion, but I kind of enjoy the stuff with Anna and her mother, and anything involving Visitors killing each other, even if the special effects are distracting because they're so cheesy.
Community
Wow. I knew they were doing a Dungeons and Dragons episode, but that was even better than I thought it would be. It was like the equivalent of South Park's World of Warcraft episode, with everyone teaming up to take down an enemy who was ruining the game. The sound effects and music were a nice touch to fill out the scenario rather than going into fantasy sequences where we actually see everything acted out (though Chang did apply some hilarious makeup for his character). I wonder how long they can keep casting Pierce as the villain in this type of episode though, because after this and the trampoline episode, they should know by now that he gets pissed off when you exclude him.
The Office
The joke about Erin not liking Holly is getting old. She's already expressed it to the cameras several times, I don't see why it needs to continue. The caption contest had potential but then everyone's captions weren't really as funny as they would have been if that were done a few seasons ago, or if Michael was involved. I guess it was all filler for the real purpose of this episode, which was to show how well Holly knows Michael. It would have been sweet, but then I remembered it had been done before on The Simpsons when Homer went off looking for his soulmate and Marge found him by using her knowledge of his habits and interests. Kind of a disappointing episode after the last few were getting good again.
Parks and Recreation
The last thing I expected Will Forte's character to be was an obsessed Twilight fan, but I think they did a good job of representing the phenomenon. The books aren't really relevant in any historical context, nor are they "good" in the critical sense, but they're like pop fiction because people still love to read them (and, apparently, argue over their values without having an actual opinion on the books themselves). But putting the video of the meeting in the time capsule was a good idea. Has anyone ever put a video recording in a time capsule before? Loved Andy listing his best qualities ("I'm nice... I'm in a band... and that's it!") and Tom's line "Twilight is DOPE." But I was sad to see Tom and Lucy break up so soon, because they were awesome and we didn't get much time with them together.
30 Rock
It may not have been the funniest episode this week, but it was interesting seeing Jack try to adjust to the Kabletown boss's methods because he is used to a system where classes are seperate and nobody is equal. The Tracy/Jenna story seemed incredibly small and irrelevant, and the Liz pretending to be pregnant story didn't really lead to a lot of good jokes, except when she claimed to be eating for two and ordered "two egg sandwiches...times two is four!"
Fringe
Nice little easter egg when a book with "Dr. Spock" written on the spine was found among William Bell's things. I don't know if I like the idea of the universe's fate resting on Peter having to choose an Olivia, because unless the genre is straight up romance, love stories should always be more of a subplot than that kind of plot device. And the mind reader being overwhelmed in public places thing has been done to death on other shows, and they didn't do anything new with it here, so I was disappointed by that, too. But it was cool to see the mysterious bowling alley guy again, I wasn't expecting that. And we got another classic Walter moment, getting excited at spotting a "punch buggy".
Glee (Superbowl Episode)
Being the Superbowl episode, I knew this one had to be football heavy, but I don't buy that a bunch of chauvinist, homophobic jocks would join glee club (even temporarily) just to play football, or that wearing zombie makeup and chanting "brains!" would do anything at all to freak out the other team. I also don't buy that Sue would win "loser of the year" just for having to forfeit the cheerleading competition. I mean a bigger loser than Mel Gibson or Dina Lohan? Please. The Thriller halftime show was decent though.
Hero of the Week: Annie from Community as Hector the Well-Endowed. She satisfied that maiden real good. Lemme see those notes, Troy.
Douchebag of the Week: Pierce from Community. I actually like Pierce because I think he's funny, but this week he just seemed like more of a relentless dick than usual. But still funny.
I didn't find Dice to be a very interesting villain. Ironically, I knew she was going to tell Fleming "You're the one who's going to kill my father" before she even said it, just because it seemed like an obvious plotline. And I didn't like that The Cape and Orwell were somehow "blind spots" in Dice's predictions, because there was really no reason or explanation for it. Just a really easy deus ex machina for the writers to make her lose in the end, because otherwise she would always be a step ahead of them and thus undefeatable. If you're going to include a character like that, you have to either explain their defeat better, let them win, or not include them at all. Also The Cape should've just ziplined across the rope or something instead of going through the trouble of trying to master tightrope walking in a short period of time.
V
This episode was boring (not to mention aggravating thanks to the massive tool that is Tyler Evans) but it got a little more interesting toward the end. Don't really like when V goes into religion, but I kind of enjoy the stuff with Anna and her mother, and anything involving Visitors killing each other, even if the special effects are distracting because they're so cheesy.
Community
Wow. I knew they were doing a Dungeons and Dragons episode, but that was even better than I thought it would be. It was like the equivalent of South Park's World of Warcraft episode, with everyone teaming up to take down an enemy who was ruining the game. The sound effects and music were a nice touch to fill out the scenario rather than going into fantasy sequences where we actually see everything acted out (though Chang did apply some hilarious makeup for his character). I wonder how long they can keep casting Pierce as the villain in this type of episode though, because after this and the trampoline episode, they should know by now that he gets pissed off when you exclude him.
The Office
The joke about Erin not liking Holly is getting old. She's already expressed it to the cameras several times, I don't see why it needs to continue. The caption contest had potential but then everyone's captions weren't really as funny as they would have been if that were done a few seasons ago, or if Michael was involved. I guess it was all filler for the real purpose of this episode, which was to show how well Holly knows Michael. It would have been sweet, but then I remembered it had been done before on The Simpsons when Homer went off looking for his soulmate and Marge found him by using her knowledge of his habits and interests. Kind of a disappointing episode after the last few were getting good again.
Parks and Recreation
The last thing I expected Will Forte's character to be was an obsessed Twilight fan, but I think they did a good job of representing the phenomenon. The books aren't really relevant in any historical context, nor are they "good" in the critical sense, but they're like pop fiction because people still love to read them (and, apparently, argue over their values without having an actual opinion on the books themselves). But putting the video of the meeting in the time capsule was a good idea. Has anyone ever put a video recording in a time capsule before? Loved Andy listing his best qualities ("I'm nice... I'm in a band... and that's it!") and Tom's line "Twilight is DOPE." But I was sad to see Tom and Lucy break up so soon, because they were awesome and we didn't get much time with them together.
30 Rock
It may not have been the funniest episode this week, but it was interesting seeing Jack try to adjust to the Kabletown boss's methods because he is used to a system where classes are seperate and nobody is equal. The Tracy/Jenna story seemed incredibly small and irrelevant, and the Liz pretending to be pregnant story didn't really lead to a lot of good jokes, except when she claimed to be eating for two and ordered "two egg sandwiches...times two is four!"
Fringe
Nice little easter egg when a book with "Dr. Spock" written on the spine was found among William Bell's things. I don't know if I like the idea of the universe's fate resting on Peter having to choose an Olivia, because unless the genre is straight up romance, love stories should always be more of a subplot than that kind of plot device. And the mind reader being overwhelmed in public places thing has been done to death on other shows, and they didn't do anything new with it here, so I was disappointed by that, too. But it was cool to see the mysterious bowling alley guy again, I wasn't expecting that. And we got another classic Walter moment, getting excited at spotting a "punch buggy".
Glee (Superbowl Episode)
Being the Superbowl episode, I knew this one had to be football heavy, but I don't buy that a bunch of chauvinist, homophobic jocks would join glee club (even temporarily) just to play football, or that wearing zombie makeup and chanting "brains!" would do anything at all to freak out the other team. I also don't buy that Sue would win "loser of the year" just for having to forfeit the cheerleading competition. I mean a bigger loser than Mel Gibson or Dina Lohan? Please. The Thriller halftime show was decent though.
Hero of the Week: Annie from Community as Hector the Well-Endowed. She satisfied that maiden real good. Lemme see those notes, Troy.
Douchebag of the Week: Pierce from Community. I actually like Pierce because I think he's funny, but this week he just seemed like more of a relentless dick than usual. But still funny.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
This Week in Television - Jan. 17-21, 2011
Sorry for the late post. Didn't have time to catch up on the Thursday/Friday shows until now.
The Cape
I'm not sure if the former cape owner coming back this soon in the series is a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand, it's soon enough for "Kozmo" to justify taking it back and lets Vince earn his right to keep it, but if they had done that storyline later on down the road it would give the viewer a bigger sense of a lot being at stake because we'd be invested by then. I don't mind this show, but The Cape's wife and kid are boring. I don't really care to see how they're getting along without him. And I don't think the chess pieces in the desk prank would really happen. I don't know how it works in the U.S., but my experience has been that students never get advanced knowledge of a new kid coming, and they especially wouldn't know where he was going to sit and then plant a visual pun in his desk. I didn't buy that, but somehow I did buy PLAYING CARDS STRAIGHT TO THE JUGULAR!
V
I guess the writers really want people to hate Tyler, because his character wasn't getting any more likable and he just became an even bigger tool by helping Anna fight the Fifth Column. It was also annoying (not to mention cheesy) how they kept having people flash their green V eyes at the camera when it was already clear they were Visitors. It's like those old comedy sketches where someone is wearing a disguise and they pull it down a little to wink at the audience. I think I'm only continuing to watch because it will probably be canceled before there's a third season. But I did kind of like the paralleled scenes of Erica and Anna cajoling each other's kids.
Community
All the Jeff/Annie shippers are going to be pissed at the fake-out where it looked like a rain-soaked Jeff was running to declare his love for her. But as is his nature, he was selfishly going to Rich for advice on becoming a better person. Everyone likes to say Rich is perfect but even a fictional character such as him must be flawed, and I think his flaw is naivete. I guess Chang is in the study group now, although it's somewhat unclear because half the group was unhappy about the decision. LOL @ Abed being referred to as "brown Jamie Lee Curtis".
The Office
Haha the cold opening was kind of a new angle, with Jim's silence causing Dwight to just make of him himself because he was expecting it from Jim. I enjoyed the Andy/Dwight/Darryl storyline of them trying to meet women (or in Darryl's case, just trying to read more. Good for him.) Andy and Dwight are a funny pair, but I think you need Darryl in there as the straight man or else the other two might fly off the handle and get too ridiculous. I also liked the stuff with Michael making his happy and sad videos and then celebrating too early. Creed resolving to do the perfect cartwheel was also funny because it was so unexpected from someone like him.
Parks and Recreation
Interesting to see what everyone was up to while the parks department was closed. Poor Jerry, so talented at a lot of things and a nice guy too, but nobody cares. Ron's "Pyramid of Greatness" was epic. I hope they include it as an insert on the season 3 DVD, but if not I will have to pause it so I can read everything on there. I love when Ann and Leslie do practice dates, they always come out ridiculous (the things Leslie apparently thinks are sexy made me laugh). Like Ann, I was surprised that I kind of liked her and Chris together. And Andy's dedication to April was cute, even if flowers are a little corny. Excellent start to the season.
30 Rock
Wasn't a fan of the storyline with Danny and Jenna acting like a married couple, because it's a gag that's been done many times before elsewhere, and it seemed like it was only there to act as a transparent parallel to Liz and Jack accidentally marrying each other, which was much funnier and more innovative because usually that joke involves drunk people waking up the next morning with rings on their fingers. And I have to admit it was a sweet payoff when Mr. Weinerslav (lol) made Liz and Jack realize how important they are to each other. Like Tina Fey, I don't want to see them in a romantic relationship, but I do love them as friends. Also Angie was annoying, but I laughed at Liz and Pete admitting they would watch a reality show about her. Always great to see Dr. Spaceman - loved when he said Tracy's blood tasted like root beer and some of his bones were missing. But the biggest question is whose chart was more awesome: Ron Swanson's Pyramid of Greatness, or Jack Donaghy's NBC priority pie chart, with The Biggest Loser taking most of the space, followed by "Make it 1997 again through science or magic". I'm assuming 1997 because at that point they had big hits like Friends, Seinfeld, and ER still on the air.
Fringe
It was kind of nice to see Walter have a casual buddy this week (I don't think Bell or The Observer really qualified). And even cooler that it was Christopher Lloyd, in an episode involving some time travel from the year 1985, when Back to the Future was released, which was referenced on a movie marquee last season. IT ALL COMES BACK AROUND! Which is very well, because this episode was kind of about the butterfly effect, or perhaps it should be called "the firefly effect" when dealing with interdimensional travel rather than time travel. Firefly also being the episode title, and the name of a show that once held what is now Fringe's new timeslot. Holy crap, it DOES come back around!
Hero of the Week: A lot of candidates this week... I think I'll have to go with Mr. Weinerslav from 30 Rock. Not just for his hilarious name (though I could've sworn it was Ballslave when he made his first appearance two or three seasons ago), but because Liz and Jack had the most touching moment of the week, and he was responsible for that.
Douchebag of the Week: Tyler from V. Do I even have to explain why?
The Cape
I'm not sure if the former cape owner coming back this soon in the series is a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand, it's soon enough for "Kozmo" to justify taking it back and lets Vince earn his right to keep it, but if they had done that storyline later on down the road it would give the viewer a bigger sense of a lot being at stake because we'd be invested by then. I don't mind this show, but The Cape's wife and kid are boring. I don't really care to see how they're getting along without him. And I don't think the chess pieces in the desk prank would really happen. I don't know how it works in the U.S., but my experience has been that students never get advanced knowledge of a new kid coming, and they especially wouldn't know where he was going to sit and then plant a visual pun in his desk. I didn't buy that, but somehow I did buy PLAYING CARDS STRAIGHT TO THE JUGULAR!
V
I guess the writers really want people to hate Tyler, because his character wasn't getting any more likable and he just became an even bigger tool by helping Anna fight the Fifth Column. It was also annoying (not to mention cheesy) how they kept having people flash their green V eyes at the camera when it was already clear they were Visitors. It's like those old comedy sketches where someone is wearing a disguise and they pull it down a little to wink at the audience. I think I'm only continuing to watch because it will probably be canceled before there's a third season. But I did kind of like the paralleled scenes of Erica and Anna cajoling each other's kids.
Community
All the Jeff/Annie shippers are going to be pissed at the fake-out where it looked like a rain-soaked Jeff was running to declare his love for her. But as is his nature, he was selfishly going to Rich for advice on becoming a better person. Everyone likes to say Rich is perfect but even a fictional character such as him must be flawed, and I think his flaw is naivete. I guess Chang is in the study group now, although it's somewhat unclear because half the group was unhappy about the decision. LOL @ Abed being referred to as "brown Jamie Lee Curtis".
The Office
Haha the cold opening was kind of a new angle, with Jim's silence causing Dwight to just make of him himself because he was expecting it from Jim. I enjoyed the Andy/Dwight/Darryl storyline of them trying to meet women (or in Darryl's case, just trying to read more. Good for him.) Andy and Dwight are a funny pair, but I think you need Darryl in there as the straight man or else the other two might fly off the handle and get too ridiculous. I also liked the stuff with Michael making his happy and sad videos and then celebrating too early. Creed resolving to do the perfect cartwheel was also funny because it was so unexpected from someone like him.
Parks and Recreation
Interesting to see what everyone was up to while the parks department was closed. Poor Jerry, so talented at a lot of things and a nice guy too, but nobody cares. Ron's "Pyramid of Greatness" was epic. I hope they include it as an insert on the season 3 DVD, but if not I will have to pause it so I can read everything on there. I love when Ann and Leslie do practice dates, they always come out ridiculous (the things Leslie apparently thinks are sexy made me laugh). Like Ann, I was surprised that I kind of liked her and Chris together. And Andy's dedication to April was cute, even if flowers are a little corny. Excellent start to the season.
30 Rock
Wasn't a fan of the storyline with Danny and Jenna acting like a married couple, because it's a gag that's been done many times before elsewhere, and it seemed like it was only there to act as a transparent parallel to Liz and Jack accidentally marrying each other, which was much funnier and more innovative because usually that joke involves drunk people waking up the next morning with rings on their fingers. And I have to admit it was a sweet payoff when Mr. Weinerslav (lol) made Liz and Jack realize how important they are to each other. Like Tina Fey, I don't want to see them in a romantic relationship, but I do love them as friends. Also Angie was annoying, but I laughed at Liz and Pete admitting they would watch a reality show about her. Always great to see Dr. Spaceman - loved when he said Tracy's blood tasted like root beer and some of his bones were missing. But the biggest question is whose chart was more awesome: Ron Swanson's Pyramid of Greatness, or Jack Donaghy's NBC priority pie chart, with The Biggest Loser taking most of the space, followed by "Make it 1997 again through science or magic". I'm assuming 1997 because at that point they had big hits like Friends, Seinfeld, and ER still on the air.
Fringe
It was kind of nice to see Walter have a casual buddy this week (I don't think Bell or The Observer really qualified). And even cooler that it was Christopher Lloyd, in an episode involving some time travel from the year 1985, when Back to the Future was released, which was referenced on a movie marquee last season. IT ALL COMES BACK AROUND! Which is very well, because this episode was kind of about the butterfly effect, or perhaps it should be called "the firefly effect" when dealing with interdimensional travel rather than time travel. Firefly also being the episode title, and the name of a show that once held what is now Fringe's new timeslot. Holy crap, it DOES come back around!
Hero of the Week: A lot of candidates this week... I think I'll have to go with Mr. Weinerslav from 30 Rock. Not just for his hilarious name (though I could've sworn it was Ballslave when he made his first appearance two or three seasons ago), but because Liz and Jack had the most touching moment of the week, and he was responsible for that.
Douchebag of the Week: Tyler from V. Do I even have to explain why?
Friday, January 14, 2011
This Week in Television - Jan. 10-14, 2011
The Cape
Thought I'd check out the premiere, and while it lacked the cool super powers it was a lot better than No Ordinary Family. I like that Vince was trained by circus people, each of them lending their unique talents. I like that his death was inadvertantly faked, giving him a stronger and more interesting reason to keep his identity a secret than the classic "I don't want to endanger my loved ones" excuse (though that's still a part of it, too). I also like the little chapter titles - something I don't think a show has done since Frasier - and the convenience store robbers calling the clerk "Borat" when he was played by the fat dude who was actually in Borat. Being a comic book type show, it did have some eye-rolling cheesy lines as well, but I suppose that's acceptable if you make sure nothing else is cheesy, and for the most part it was solid. That's how you do it, No Ordinary Family, not with loads of cliches or predictability or Michael Chiklis.
V
The creepiness of Anna eating a rat was nullified (or perhaps intensified, I'm not quite sure which) by the awfully fake-looking special effects. I also laughed a little at the commercial cliffhanger fake-out where they revealed Erica's face in Joshua's memories and then came back and said "he remembers being taken down by Erica Evans, but there's nothing of his collaborators!" I understand Ryan wanting to protect his daughter and everything, but the thing about blackmail is this: when someone is blackmailing you, it means they want something from you. That gives you almost as much power over them as they have over you, because if they do what they're threatening then they won't get what they want from you, and if they can afford that then the threat's probably not that serious. ...But since it's Anna, I wouldn't call her bluff on this one. Oh, and the scene with Erica and Malik in the car didn't quite work for me. I know it was supposed to be all tense and cool as they both had their suspicions about each other, but it seemed really forced and lacked subtlety the way they both just immediately questioned each other about where they were. It felt off to me.
Thought I'd check out the premiere, and while it lacked the cool super powers it was a lot better than No Ordinary Family. I like that Vince was trained by circus people, each of them lending their unique talents. I like that his death was inadvertantly faked, giving him a stronger and more interesting reason to keep his identity a secret than the classic "I don't want to endanger my loved ones" excuse (though that's still a part of it, too). I also like the little chapter titles - something I don't think a show has done since Frasier - and the convenience store robbers calling the clerk "Borat" when he was played by the fat dude who was actually in Borat. Being a comic book type show, it did have some eye-rolling cheesy lines as well, but I suppose that's acceptable if you make sure nothing else is cheesy, and for the most part it was solid. That's how you do it, No Ordinary Family, not with loads of cliches or predictability or Michael Chiklis.
V
The creepiness of Anna eating a rat was nullified (or perhaps intensified, I'm not quite sure which) by the awfully fake-looking special effects. I also laughed a little at the commercial cliffhanger fake-out where they revealed Erica's face in Joshua's memories and then came back and said "he remembers being taken down by Erica Evans, but there's nothing of his collaborators!" I understand Ryan wanting to protect his daughter and everything, but the thing about blackmail is this: when someone is blackmailing you, it means they want something from you. That gives you almost as much power over them as they have over you, because if they do what they're threatening then they won't get what they want from you, and if they can afford that then the threat's probably not that serious. ...But since it's Anna, I wouldn't call her bluff on this one. Oh, and the scene with Erica and Malik in the car didn't quite work for me. I know it was supposed to be all tense and cool as they both had their suspicions about each other, but it seemed really forced and lacked subtlety the way they both just immediately questioned each other about where they were. It felt off to me.
Friday, January 7, 2011
This Week in Television - Jan. 3-7, 2011
V
I said last season that V seems like a show full of morons, and it looks like things haven't really changed. Well, I guess it's not the characters who are morons, it's the writers. Anytime someone has a good train of thought going, whoever else is in the room apparently needs it spelled out for them in case the audience is too dumb to figure it out. Example: when Marcus asked Anna why Ryan would help the visitors, I already knew the answer because it was obvious they had his daughter for blackmail, and Marcus should've been smart enough to know that, too. But Anna also killed a visitor with her tail, so this show still has its moments. When Joshua appeared to have no memory of The Fifth Column, I thought Anna had set up Lisa because she knew she'd check on him, but I guess not because given this show's straightforwardness there would have been a follow-up scene confirming as much.
I think I'll wait for everything else to come back before doing more hero/douchebag awards. V's characters are kind of bland picks for either.
I said last season that V seems like a show full of morons, and it looks like things haven't really changed. Well, I guess it's not the characters who are morons, it's the writers. Anytime someone has a good train of thought going, whoever else is in the room apparently needs it spelled out for them in case the audience is too dumb to figure it out. Example: when Marcus asked Anna why Ryan would help the visitors, I already knew the answer because it was obvious they had his daughter for blackmail, and Marcus should've been smart enough to know that, too. But Anna also killed a visitor with her tail, so this show still has its moments. When Joshua appeared to have no memory of The Fifth Column, I thought Anna had set up Lisa because she knew she'd check on him, but I guess not because given this show's straightforwardness there would have been a follow-up scene confirming as much.
I think I'll wait for everything else to come back before doing more hero/douchebag awards. V's characters are kind of bland picks for either.
Friday, May 28, 2010
This Week in Television - May 17-21, 2010
Sorry, I'm behind on my posts. Will catch up soon. It's finale week! Most of these shows ended this week so this is the last large TV post of this season.
Lost
The Sunday finale will be getting its own post, because I said so. As for this episode: Zoe was like a poor man's Tina Fey (you know it's true) and Widmore, like so many others before him, seemed to have outlived his usefulness once he turned to the good side, so it was acceptable for them to die (and even if it hadn't been, this is the second last episode so who cares?). I enjoyed the Ben-Alex-Danielle scene in the flash-sideways, and Michael Emerson's emotional performance upon being told that he was like a father to Alex. And it was cool that Hurley and Desmond were the only two people who know what's going on in the flash-sideways universe, as we were reminded when Hurley said to him "Oh, you didn't tell me Ana-Lucia was gonna be here!"
Glee
Like Kristin Chenoweth before him, Neil Patrick Harris was an excellent choice for a guest star due to his singing ability and comedic timing. His one scene with Sue Sylvester was awesome.
V
I was starting to like Joshua so it was disappointing (yet admirable) that he sacrificed himself for the Fifth Column. But then Marcus revived him at the end, which worries me because I doubt it's that Marcus is Fifth Column. I kind of like the idea of Anna experiencing a human emotion. I don't expect her to start empathizing with humans, but I do think it could make her a more threatening enemy if she starts to get better at manipulating them because of it. I hope Chad will stop being a douche now that he knows the truth about the V's, and I won't miss Valerie because I always found her character uninteresting and even a little dumb.
Flash Forward
This one was just meant to kill time before they show us whether everyone's flash forwards happen. It was a little frustrating that they kept teasing us by going on about how we were only hours away from the flash forwards and then the episode ended. I get that they needed to save it for the finale, but still, I think this episode suffered because of it.
Parks and Recreation
I wasn't really a fan of Wendy because even though her marriage to Tom was a sham, I felt that she was cold to him in spite of the green card related favour he was providing for her. Lucy seems way cooler, and now that Wendy is boning Ron I hope he doesn't develop Andy syndrome and start pining for an old flame when he's with a better girl. Speaking of Andy, I find it funny that this big, simple (albeit likable) oaf was at one point a loser living at the bottom of a pit and now he has two girls into him. Well done, sir. Also like Chris (Rob Lowe) being the unrealistic optimist who always brings unverified good news and then quickly lets Ben (Adam Scott) take it back. And it was very awesome of Ron to offer his own job to save Leslie's, and even awesomer that he invented a bacon-wrapped turkey leg known as "The Swanson". And finally, Leslie referring to Mark as "Brandanoquitz" was one of those puns that makes you laugh hard even though it's eye-rollingly terrible.
The Office
I loved when the IT guy owned everyone in the room for forgetting his name a mere ten seconds after he said it. And the ending was promising, because as terrible as Michael is with women, Holly was without a doubt his best match. I hope Amy Ryan does come back next season, and it would be funny if her boyfriend AJ came with her, because Michael would lose it.
30 Rock
I like Matt Damon and it was cool to see him appear as Liz's "dream man". His character could have been funnier but hopefully he will return to improve on that. Looks like Jack chose Avery after all, just like I said.
Fringe
Finally we got to see Walter reunite with William Bell! Too bad Bell sacrificed himself for almost nothing, because Walter and Peter will probably have to return to the other side once they realize their Olivia is trapped there, which I bet is exactly what Walternate wants.
Hero of the Week: Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation for accomplishing a lot of awesomeness: Being loyal to Leslie and pulling off an awesome grass slide in a frantic attempt to warn her, eating a Swanson, and finally sleeping with Tom's ex wife after previously hinting at his interest in her.
Douchebag of the Week: Walternate from Fringe. He's just not as cool as our Walter.
Lost
The Sunday finale will be getting its own post, because I said so. As for this episode: Zoe was like a poor man's Tina Fey (you know it's true) and Widmore, like so many others before him, seemed to have outlived his usefulness once he turned to the good side, so it was acceptable for them to die (and even if it hadn't been, this is the second last episode so who cares?). I enjoyed the Ben-Alex-Danielle scene in the flash-sideways, and Michael Emerson's emotional performance upon being told that he was like a father to Alex. And it was cool that Hurley and Desmond were the only two people who know what's going on in the flash-sideways universe, as we were reminded when Hurley said to him "Oh, you didn't tell me Ana-Lucia was gonna be here!"
Glee
Like Kristin Chenoweth before him, Neil Patrick Harris was an excellent choice for a guest star due to his singing ability and comedic timing. His one scene with Sue Sylvester was awesome.
V
I was starting to like Joshua so it was disappointing (yet admirable) that he sacrificed himself for the Fifth Column. But then Marcus revived him at the end, which worries me because I doubt it's that Marcus is Fifth Column. I kind of like the idea of Anna experiencing a human emotion. I don't expect her to start empathizing with humans, but I do think it could make her a more threatening enemy if she starts to get better at manipulating them because of it. I hope Chad will stop being a douche now that he knows the truth about the V's, and I won't miss Valerie because I always found her character uninteresting and even a little dumb.
Flash Forward
This one was just meant to kill time before they show us whether everyone's flash forwards happen. It was a little frustrating that they kept teasing us by going on about how we were only hours away from the flash forwards and then the episode ended. I get that they needed to save it for the finale, but still, I think this episode suffered because of it.
Parks and Recreation
I wasn't really a fan of Wendy because even though her marriage to Tom was a sham, I felt that she was cold to him in spite of the green card related favour he was providing for her. Lucy seems way cooler, and now that Wendy is boning Ron I hope he doesn't develop Andy syndrome and start pining for an old flame when he's with a better girl. Speaking of Andy, I find it funny that this big, simple (albeit likable) oaf was at one point a loser living at the bottom of a pit and now he has two girls into him. Well done, sir. Also like Chris (Rob Lowe) being the unrealistic optimist who always brings unverified good news and then quickly lets Ben (Adam Scott) take it back. And it was very awesome of Ron to offer his own job to save Leslie's, and even awesomer that he invented a bacon-wrapped turkey leg known as "The Swanson". And finally, Leslie referring to Mark as "Brandanoquitz" was one of those puns that makes you laugh hard even though it's eye-rollingly terrible.
The Office
I loved when the IT guy owned everyone in the room for forgetting his name a mere ten seconds after he said it. And the ending was promising, because as terrible as Michael is with women, Holly was without a doubt his best match. I hope Amy Ryan does come back next season, and it would be funny if her boyfriend AJ came with her, because Michael would lose it.
30 Rock
I like Matt Damon and it was cool to see him appear as Liz's "dream man". His character could have been funnier but hopefully he will return to improve on that. Looks like Jack chose Avery after all, just like I said.
Fringe
Finally we got to see Walter reunite with William Bell! Too bad Bell sacrificed himself for almost nothing, because Walter and Peter will probably have to return to the other side once they realize their Olivia is trapped there, which I bet is exactly what Walternate wants.
Hero of the Week: Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation for accomplishing a lot of awesomeness: Being loyal to Leslie and pulling off an awesome grass slide in a frantic attempt to warn her, eating a Swanson, and finally sleeping with Tom's ex wife after previously hinting at his interest in her.
Douchebag of the Week: Walternate from Fringe. He's just not as cool as our Walter.
Monday, May 17, 2010
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!
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!
Saturday, May 8, 2010
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'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.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
This Week in Television - Apr. 19-23, 2010
Lost
This episode felt a little like filler so I don't know what to say here, but I like that everyone is gradually coming together in the flash-sideways timeline, and that on the island an escape attempt is happening that kind of echoes the first time the Oceanic 6 left. Jack even jumped out of the boat the exact same way that Sawyer jumped out of the helicopter.
Glee
Ok, so first of all I abhor "makeovers" because they're so offensive to the subject involved and they end up turning that person into someone fake, and secondly when Sue was made over to look like Madonna and star in a music video reshoot of "Vogue", my reaction was just "WTF...?" Actually my first reaction was to laugh, but as it went on I just felt that it was so oddly out of place (and with production values impossibly high for a crappy high school video project). As awesome as Sue is, and as nice as it was that they were able to make use of Jane Lynch's pre-existing singing abilities, and even given her supposed obsession with Madonna that only surfaced this very episode, it just felt too widely out of character for Sue Sylvester to participate in something that borders on glee club territory, which she so passionately hates. Also Brittany's dumb lines are classic: "When I pulled my hamstring, I went to a misogynist." Not just what she says but the way she always says these lines quietly, as if she knows it's stupid but is saying it anyway.
V
I'm still having trouble buying Tyler and Lisa's "love" because I haven't really seen anything between them that I found touching. Mostly they probably just find each other attractive because that's about all I can see right now. Shouldn't Anna have Joshua take the empathy test too? I realize that the writers probably need him and all, but it's not really like Anna to overlook that kind of thing. And Valerie's neglecting to at least ask Ryan questions about the thing growing INSIDE HER is creating the same problem that I had with The Thing's wife in the Fantastic Four movie. It makes it hard for me to sympathize with Ryan if he loses her.
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Goddammit, I can't stand Parvati. I mean, yes, she made a very smart move, but she spent most of the episode (and basically the season, too) bragging about how amazing she is, calling herself the queen of the game, and complaining that nobody came to talk to her when the tribes merged. I don't care how brilliant a player you are, that just spells spoiled brat. At least Jeff Probst called her out on it at tribal council. I'm disappointed that a Hero went home, but I'm glad it was JT because he deserves it after his extreme stupidity set all of this in motion. Also props to Rupert for finally catching on to what's really going on, although he is an episode too late.
Flash Forward
I just about died laughing when, for some reason, they decided to throw in an old gag from The Simpsons and have Demetri's photo get shot instead of Demetri himself. I'm not sure if it was meant to be humourous or not, but either way it was an odd thing to put into a tense moment in a drama show.
The Office
Kevin as Cookie Monster was even better than the time he made the Kool-Aid Jug face. Erin's reaction to the bad news at lunch was also hilarious thanks to Ellie Kemper's performance.
30 Rock
Double episodes this week! I wish our Canadian channels wouldn't "hijack" the American networks, because even though my satellite was tuned to NBC, I was watching 30 Rock on CityTV, and they pasted an annoying promo over some subtitles in one scene so I probably missed a joke. Loved the randomness of Tracy attempting to bring his wife a sandwich but ending up at a strip club instead. Apparently the second episode with the janitors was meant to be a parody of the Conan/Leno situation, but since that was resolved months ago it literally went over my head. Looking back on it now when there was discussion of 10:00 and 11:30 shifts and one of them had a name similar to Conan (Khonani), I feel stupid for missing it. But that being said, the episode was still funny without that extra layer. Like Jack, I'm not sure if I prefer Nancy or Avery either.
Fringe
Oh, okay, so Mrs. Bishop was the reason Walter couldn't tell Peter. I'm not sure if they'd mentioned in a previous episode that she committed suicide. But I like that they went with Peter figuring it out on his own during the universe fluctuation bridge exchange thing. Makes it more interesting than Walter or Olivia flat out telling him.
Hero of the Week: Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock wins for his second time, because both of his dates are so cool that he spent two episodes agonizing over which one to choose and still hasn't picked one. I feel your pain, brotha.
Douchebag of the Week: Parvati from Survivor, also for the second time. It would have been hilarious if she'd given her two idols to Jerri and Sandra and then the Heroes voted for Parvati anyway, but alas that did not happen, and now I'm going to have to hear her boast about being "the queen" again next week. *Facepalm.*
This episode felt a little like filler so I don't know what to say here, but I like that everyone is gradually coming together in the flash-sideways timeline, and that on the island an escape attempt is happening that kind of echoes the first time the Oceanic 6 left. Jack even jumped out of the boat the exact same way that Sawyer jumped out of the helicopter.
Glee
Ok, so first of all I abhor "makeovers" because they're so offensive to the subject involved and they end up turning that person into someone fake, and secondly when Sue was made over to look like Madonna and star in a music video reshoot of "Vogue", my reaction was just "WTF...?" Actually my first reaction was to laugh, but as it went on I just felt that it was so oddly out of place (and with production values impossibly high for a crappy high school video project). As awesome as Sue is, and as nice as it was that they were able to make use of Jane Lynch's pre-existing singing abilities, and even given her supposed obsession with Madonna that only surfaced this very episode, it just felt too widely out of character for Sue Sylvester to participate in something that borders on glee club territory, which she so passionately hates. Also Brittany's dumb lines are classic: "When I pulled my hamstring, I went to a misogynist." Not just what she says but the way she always says these lines quietly, as if she knows it's stupid but is saying it anyway.
V
I'm still having trouble buying Tyler and Lisa's "love" because I haven't really seen anything between them that I found touching. Mostly they probably just find each other attractive because that's about all I can see right now. Shouldn't Anna have Joshua take the empathy test too? I realize that the writers probably need him and all, but it's not really like Anna to overlook that kind of thing. And Valerie's neglecting to at least ask Ryan questions about the thing growing INSIDE HER is creating the same problem that I had with The Thing's wife in the Fantastic Four movie. It makes it hard for me to sympathize with Ryan if he loses her.
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Goddammit, I can't stand Parvati. I mean, yes, she made a very smart move, but she spent most of the episode (and basically the season, too) bragging about how amazing she is, calling herself the queen of the game, and complaining that nobody came to talk to her when the tribes merged. I don't care how brilliant a player you are, that just spells spoiled brat. At least Jeff Probst called her out on it at tribal council. I'm disappointed that a Hero went home, but I'm glad it was JT because he deserves it after his extreme stupidity set all of this in motion. Also props to Rupert for finally catching on to what's really going on, although he is an episode too late.
Flash Forward
I just about died laughing when, for some reason, they decided to throw in an old gag from The Simpsons and have Demetri's photo get shot instead of Demetri himself. I'm not sure if it was meant to be humourous or not, but either way it was an odd thing to put into a tense moment in a drama show.
The Office
Kevin as Cookie Monster was even better than the time he made the Kool-Aid Jug face. Erin's reaction to the bad news at lunch was also hilarious thanks to Ellie Kemper's performance.
30 Rock
Double episodes this week! I wish our Canadian channels wouldn't "hijack" the American networks, because even though my satellite was tuned to NBC, I was watching 30 Rock on CityTV, and they pasted an annoying promo over some subtitles in one scene so I probably missed a joke. Loved the randomness of Tracy attempting to bring his wife a sandwich but ending up at a strip club instead. Apparently the second episode with the janitors was meant to be a parody of the Conan/Leno situation, but since that was resolved months ago it literally went over my head. Looking back on it now when there was discussion of 10:00 and 11:30 shifts and one of them had a name similar to Conan (Khonani), I feel stupid for missing it. But that being said, the episode was still funny without that extra layer. Like Jack, I'm not sure if I prefer Nancy or Avery either.
Fringe
Oh, okay, so Mrs. Bishop was the reason Walter couldn't tell Peter. I'm not sure if they'd mentioned in a previous episode that she committed suicide. But I like that they went with Peter figuring it out on his own during the universe fluctuation bridge exchange thing. Makes it more interesting than Walter or Olivia flat out telling him.
Hero of the Week: Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock wins for his second time, because both of his dates are so cool that he spent two episodes agonizing over which one to choose and still hasn't picked one. I feel your pain, brotha.
Douchebag of the Week: Parvati from Survivor, also for the second time. It would have been hilarious if she'd given her two idols to Jerri and Sandra and then the Heroes voted for Parvati anyway, but alas that did not happen, and now I'm going to have to hear her boast about being "the queen" again next week. *Facepalm.*
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
This Week in Television - Apr. 12-16, 2010
Lost
It was kind of nice that Hurley and Libby finally got their picnic date. Good for them. I suppose love is going to bring the two timelines together. Unless you're Locke, in which case it's being run down by Desmond. My theory is that he was trying to kill him so that Locke would be dead in both timelines for synchronization purposes, but it could also be that he only wanted to injure him to force him into getting fixed by Jack, or that he wanted revenge for being tossed down the well. I really don't know which one. P.S. Hurley's mom is always funny.
Glee
Sue is back and dishing out more insults about Schuester's hair. I like it. But I found it weird that Schuester would make out with the coach from Vocal Adrenaline while dating Emma when he wouldn't do anything with Emma while still with his wife. I guess he's just more of a horndog than I thought. Speaking of horndogs, Finn's three-way date with Brittany and Santana was kind of funny. As opposed to "Schue", I did buy that Finn would ditch Rachel for them because he's already made it clear that he thinks with his groin as per his intentions with Quinn at the beginning of the series.
V
Hmm, I think V may be slowly becoming a better show than Flash Forward. It started off slowly but now it's got my interest again, and I think this is because they apparently have a new executive producer behind the show. I do think they need to work on characters though, because I can't say I like most of them, or even know most of them well enough. But Chad Decker was cool this week when I was previously indifferent to him, because he finally had Anna by the balls and made her sweat a little. I'm also interested to see the Anna egg-birthing story play out. And I hope there is a better reason for Tyler finding out his father isn't his father than just to create drama and tension between him and Erica. Because that would only work if I liked Tyler.
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
I want to root for the Heroes tribe, but they make it hard when they pull stupid stunts like giving Russell an idol. Was it really so important to save him from a supposed women's alliance that an extremely risky move was appropriate? It would have been easier and more practical to just try and convince someone to flip once the merge happens - especially with the idol in hand, which they could have used to their advantage to win over a 5-5 vote. And even if they don't know Russell's game being that his season was too recent, they should have figured that he was on the Villains tribe for a reason and therefore was probably not trustworthy. Now Russell and Parvati both have idols. Ugh.
Flash Forward
Oh snap, Demetri is Janis's baby daddy! Oh snap, Lloyd and Olivia are hooking up! Oh snap, Aaron gets guns and FBI assistance to rescue Tracy! Oh snap, D. Gibbons kidnapped Demetri before his wedding! Nah, it wasn't really that exciting. I'm going to keep watching but I don't expect Flash Forward to return for a second season, it looks like the ratings have been steadily declining each episode.
Fringe
Peter Weller is looking old. This was a cool episode though - I enjoyed the time travel resets and the subtle differences between the multiple viewings of scenes. I'm not really sure why Peter would be so mad at Walter though if he found out he was from the other side.
Hero of the Week: Alistair Peck (Peter Weller) from Fringe, for doing the right thing in the end, and because all of the crazy machinery beneath his flesh was almost like a throwback to Robocop. Almost.
Douchebag of the Week: I'm not sure whether to be more angry at JT from Survivor for suggesting such a horrible plan, or the rest of the Heroes tribe for agreeing to it, so I'm giving the Douchebag award to the entire Heroes tribe, including JT. And with that the Heroes tribe become the first television characters to be both Hero of the Week and Douchebag of the Week.
It was kind of nice that Hurley and Libby finally got their picnic date. Good for them. I suppose love is going to bring the two timelines together. Unless you're Locke, in which case it's being run down by Desmond. My theory is that he was trying to kill him so that Locke would be dead in both timelines for synchronization purposes, but it could also be that he only wanted to injure him to force him into getting fixed by Jack, or that he wanted revenge for being tossed down the well. I really don't know which one. P.S. Hurley's mom is always funny.
Glee
Sue is back and dishing out more insults about Schuester's hair. I like it. But I found it weird that Schuester would make out with the coach from Vocal Adrenaline while dating Emma when he wouldn't do anything with Emma while still with his wife. I guess he's just more of a horndog than I thought. Speaking of horndogs, Finn's three-way date with Brittany and Santana was kind of funny. As opposed to "Schue", I did buy that Finn would ditch Rachel for them because he's already made it clear that he thinks with his groin as per his intentions with Quinn at the beginning of the series.
V
Hmm, I think V may be slowly becoming a better show than Flash Forward. It started off slowly but now it's got my interest again, and I think this is because they apparently have a new executive producer behind the show. I do think they need to work on characters though, because I can't say I like most of them, or even know most of them well enough. But Chad Decker was cool this week when I was previously indifferent to him, because he finally had Anna by the balls and made her sweat a little. I'm also interested to see the Anna egg-birthing story play out. And I hope there is a better reason for Tyler finding out his father isn't his father than just to create drama and tension between him and Erica. Because that would only work if I liked Tyler.
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
I want to root for the Heroes tribe, but they make it hard when they pull stupid stunts like giving Russell an idol. Was it really so important to save him from a supposed women's alliance that an extremely risky move was appropriate? It would have been easier and more practical to just try and convince someone to flip once the merge happens - especially with the idol in hand, which they could have used to their advantage to win over a 5-5 vote. And even if they don't know Russell's game being that his season was too recent, they should have figured that he was on the Villains tribe for a reason and therefore was probably not trustworthy. Now Russell and Parvati both have idols. Ugh.
Flash Forward
Oh snap, Demetri is Janis's baby daddy! Oh snap, Lloyd and Olivia are hooking up! Oh snap, Aaron gets guns and FBI assistance to rescue Tracy! Oh snap, D. Gibbons kidnapped Demetri before his wedding! Nah, it wasn't really that exciting. I'm going to keep watching but I don't expect Flash Forward to return for a second season, it looks like the ratings have been steadily declining each episode.
Fringe
Peter Weller is looking old. This was a cool episode though - I enjoyed the time travel resets and the subtle differences between the multiple viewings of scenes. I'm not really sure why Peter would be so mad at Walter though if he found out he was from the other side.
Hero of the Week: Alistair Peck (Peter Weller) from Fringe, for doing the right thing in the end, and because all of the crazy machinery beneath his flesh was almost like a throwback to Robocop. Almost.
Douchebag of the Week: I'm not sure whether to be more angry at JT from Survivor for suggesting such a horrible plan, or the rest of the Heroes tribe for agreeing to it, so I'm giving the Douchebag award to the entire Heroes tribe, including JT. And with that the Heroes tribe become the first television characters to be both Hero of the Week and Douchebag of the Week.
Monday, April 12, 2010
This Week in Television - Apr. 5-9, 2010
Lost
I like Desmond and it was nice that this episode touched on the importance of love, but being that it took place almost entirely in the alternate timeline, it didn't move the story along that much so I don't really know what to say about it. I did like the eerie scene where Charlie and Desmond replicated the season 3 finale moment in the Looking Glass station. I think Charlie knew what he was doing, he had that look on his face.
V
This was probably the best episode so far, which isn't really saying a lot but I hope the show continues to improve. But I don't understand why Ryan thinks he can hide an alien baby from his woman when it's inside her stomach. You might as well tell her now, dude, because she's going to notice when it comes out of her. Anyway, it looks like the war is slowly getting on its way, and that's what made this episode good. It was cool of Georgie to sacrifice himself. He shouldn't have gone to the ship in the first place, although if he hadn't then Ryan would've gotten busted. But then Ryan shouldn't have been constantly looking around him every second he was on the ship, because that was idiotically conspicuous. Is this show full of idiots? I mean Valerie almost ate a rat and she didn't even wonder why. In spite of my complaining I don't mind this show, but I don't think I've seen anyone make any brilliant choices yet.
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Amanda and Sandra were the stars of this week's episode. Amanda because she caught JT redhanded with the immunity idol and won the bowling challenge for the Heroes, and Sandra because she brilliantly ran the show by running Russell in order to give Coach the boot. Dragonslayer slayed! But I hope the Heroes will put a stop to JT - if next week's preview is any indication, I smell a future Douchebag of the Week!
Flash Forward
This episode was alright, but the ending with Janis turning out to be a mole seemed like it was in there for shock value and not because it would make any sense. When you put in a plot twist, it's supposed to be logical but not predictable. This one was unpredictable, but only because there was no precedent for it - in other words, it's not something where you could look back at previous episodes and notice that they have been hinting at it all along, because they haven't been.
Fringe
Another movie inside joke this week, with Diane Kruger guest-starring and dropping the name "Gorlami" for the Inglourious Basterds fans. Nice to see Walter making taffy after a short hiatus from food obsessions.
Hero of the Week: Desmond from Lost, because every time the universe tries to keep him away from Penny, he defies time and space to get her back again.
Douchebag of the Week: Let's say Ryan from V. He can be a cool character, but this week he was dumb.
I like Desmond and it was nice that this episode touched on the importance of love, but being that it took place almost entirely in the alternate timeline, it didn't move the story along that much so I don't really know what to say about it. I did like the eerie scene where Charlie and Desmond replicated the season 3 finale moment in the Looking Glass station. I think Charlie knew what he was doing, he had that look on his face.
V
This was probably the best episode so far, which isn't really saying a lot but I hope the show continues to improve. But I don't understand why Ryan thinks he can hide an alien baby from his woman when it's inside her stomach. You might as well tell her now, dude, because she's going to notice when it comes out of her. Anyway, it looks like the war is slowly getting on its way, and that's what made this episode good. It was cool of Georgie to sacrifice himself. He shouldn't have gone to the ship in the first place, although if he hadn't then Ryan would've gotten busted. But then Ryan shouldn't have been constantly looking around him every second he was on the ship, because that was idiotically conspicuous. Is this show full of idiots? I mean Valerie almost ate a rat and she didn't even wonder why. In spite of my complaining I don't mind this show, but I don't think I've seen anyone make any brilliant choices yet.
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Amanda and Sandra were the stars of this week's episode. Amanda because she caught JT redhanded with the immunity idol and won the bowling challenge for the Heroes, and Sandra because she brilliantly ran the show by running Russell in order to give Coach the boot. Dragonslayer slayed! But I hope the Heroes will put a stop to JT - if next week's preview is any indication, I smell a future Douchebag of the Week!
Flash Forward
This episode was alright, but the ending with Janis turning out to be a mole seemed like it was in there for shock value and not because it would make any sense. When you put in a plot twist, it's supposed to be logical but not predictable. This one was unpredictable, but only because there was no precedent for it - in other words, it's not something where you could look back at previous episodes and notice that they have been hinting at it all along, because they haven't been.
Fringe
Another movie inside joke this week, with Diane Kruger guest-starring and dropping the name "Gorlami" for the Inglourious Basterds fans. Nice to see Walter making taffy after a short hiatus from food obsessions.
Hero of the Week: Desmond from Lost, because every time the universe tries to keep him away from Penny, he defies time and space to get her back again.
Douchebag of the Week: Let's say Ryan from V. He can be a cool character, but this week he was dumb.
Friday, April 2, 2010
This Week in Television - Mar. 29-Apr. 2, 2010
Before I get to the shows, I just want to say one thing about the countdown timer for V that was in the corner for the entire duration of Lost. I know a lot of people were complaining that it was annoying and distracting, and while that is true, my biggest problem was the countdown itself. A countdown worked when they used it for the season 6 premiere of Lost, because Lost has become an epic show with a huge fanbase. V has neither of those things going for it, and so a countdown does not reflect viewer excitement and certainly isn't going to create any. All it did was piss off Lost fans.
Lost
I was actually kind of surprised when Widmore revealed his intentions were good. But I suppose it makes sense because, while he is often a dick, I do believe that he loves his daughter. It was interesting seeing Sun and Jin being much happier in a relationship that is a secret affair rather than a marriage. And it's been a while since we got an episode that has Keamy, Mikhail, and Desmond. So the man in black needs all 6 candidates before he can leave, because then there's no one left to replace Jacob. But he still doesn't realize Kate is a secret candidate, so all she has to do is sneak away from his group and he's boned. Last week's episode was a very tough act to follow, but this one was still cool.
V
The return episode this week was a little better than some of the previous ones, but I still haven't been able to drum up a ton of enthusiasm for this show. To be honest I'm actually more excited for the return of Glee than I was for V, and Glee is also somewhat near the bottom on the hierarchy of shows I enjoy. Elizabeth Mitchell's character is cool, but no one else is that interesting and her son is still a tool. Anyway, as for this week's episode, it was kind of painfully enjoyable to watch Erica trying to warn people about the V's but constantly having to backtrack and bite her tongue because of the V's keeping watch on her. And of course the disturbing ending where Anna devours her mate.
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
I kind of thought the Rob vs. Russell battle would draw on longer than that. But like last week, the plan got screwed up by one person alone, and that one person was Coach, who felt he owed loyalty to both alliances so threw away his vote, thereby voting out Boston Rob without actually voting for him. And then Rob snubbed him on his way out. Nice. It's good for the rest of the tribe though, because whenever we're watching the Villains camp it's always the Rob, Russell, and Coach show and nobody else gets much screen time.
Flash Forward
The revelation here is not that Mark dies, because I don't entirely believe he will (all flash forwards take place at the same time, and Mark didn't die in his, although he may have been about to when the men with guns snuck in), but it looks like Demetri's new partner is responsible for those men, or is at least in on it. Maybe he's also the one to kill Demetri. And once again Flash Forward thinks it's Lost by throwing in something similar to a Dharma orientation video inside something similar to a hatch interior.
Fringe
This was one of the strongest episodes so far. While telling a story we sort of already knew, we got some cool revelations like how Nina Sharpe lost her arm, how Walter intended to bring Peter back but couldn't bear to, and we saw an Observer make a mistake. Also an amazing and touching performance from John Noble and an awesome inside joke about Back to the Future for the movie nerds. Yes, I think this has become my favourite episode so far.
Hero of the Week: Walter Bishop from Fringe. Because who else can jeopardize the fate of two universes and still be that awesome?
Douchebag of the Week: Coach from Survivor. I didn't really hate anyone this week, but Coach is always a douche and practically wrote it on his own forehead this week anyway. Also he gets the dishonour of being the first person to make Douchebag of the Week twice. Way to go, dick.
Lost
I was actually kind of surprised when Widmore revealed his intentions were good. But I suppose it makes sense because, while he is often a dick, I do believe that he loves his daughter. It was interesting seeing Sun and Jin being much happier in a relationship that is a secret affair rather than a marriage. And it's been a while since we got an episode that has Keamy, Mikhail, and Desmond. So the man in black needs all 6 candidates before he can leave, because then there's no one left to replace Jacob. But he still doesn't realize Kate is a secret candidate, so all she has to do is sneak away from his group and he's boned. Last week's episode was a very tough act to follow, but this one was still cool.
V
The return episode this week was a little better than some of the previous ones, but I still haven't been able to drum up a ton of enthusiasm for this show. To be honest I'm actually more excited for the return of Glee than I was for V, and Glee is also somewhat near the bottom on the hierarchy of shows I enjoy. Elizabeth Mitchell's character is cool, but no one else is that interesting and her son is still a tool. Anyway, as for this week's episode, it was kind of painfully enjoyable to watch Erica trying to warn people about the V's but constantly having to backtrack and bite her tongue because of the V's keeping watch on her. And of course the disturbing ending where Anna devours her mate.
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
I kind of thought the Rob vs. Russell battle would draw on longer than that. But like last week, the plan got screwed up by one person alone, and that one person was Coach, who felt he owed loyalty to both alliances so threw away his vote, thereby voting out Boston Rob without actually voting for him. And then Rob snubbed him on his way out. Nice. It's good for the rest of the tribe though, because whenever we're watching the Villains camp it's always the Rob, Russell, and Coach show and nobody else gets much screen time.
Flash Forward
The revelation here is not that Mark dies, because I don't entirely believe he will (all flash forwards take place at the same time, and Mark didn't die in his, although he may have been about to when the men with guns snuck in), but it looks like Demetri's new partner is responsible for those men, or is at least in on it. Maybe he's also the one to kill Demetri. And once again Flash Forward thinks it's Lost by throwing in something similar to a Dharma orientation video inside something similar to a hatch interior.
Fringe
This was one of the strongest episodes so far. While telling a story we sort of already knew, we got some cool revelations like how Nina Sharpe lost her arm, how Walter intended to bring Peter back but couldn't bear to, and we saw an Observer make a mistake. Also an amazing and touching performance from John Noble and an awesome inside joke about Back to the Future for the movie nerds. Yes, I think this has become my favourite episode so far.
Hero of the Week: Walter Bishop from Fringe. Because who else can jeopardize the fate of two universes and still be that awesome?
Douchebag of the Week: Coach from Survivor. I didn't really hate anyone this week, but Coach is always a douche and practically wrote it on his own forehead this week anyway. Also he gets the dishonour of being the first person to make Douchebag of the Week twice. Way to go, dick.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
This Week in Television - Nov. 23-27, 2009
Short week due to the American Thanksgiving on Thursday.
Heroes
Wow, Doug is a pretentious tool. I guess Sandra wanted the exact opposite of Noah. Sylar giving Angela the kiss of death made me laugh because it was so creepy. I don't think the dude with the dreadlocks necessarily has the same power that the Haitian does, because when he was done with Hiro, he hadn't forgotten anything. He still knew he had to escape and rescue someone, he was just confused about who that was. So I guess his power is... confusion?
V
The ending was cool, when they showed more ships coming. Hilarious pattern I noticed: every episode has a scene where Ryan hugs his human girlfriend and he makes an "Oh crap, I hope she doesn't find out I'm a V" face over her shoulder.
Glee
Only saw some of the episode, but I don't think I was missing much. Looked like it was mostly about Quinn's baby.
Survivor: Samoa
Clip show this week.
Kenny vs. Spenny
Who can keep a chicken coop on their head the longest? I like when they do these competitions that are really out there. This one was probably more entertaining than funny though, except when Kenny was basically doing a stand-up routine on abortion.
Overall rating for this week's shows: B
Heroes
Wow, Doug is a pretentious tool. I guess Sandra wanted the exact opposite of Noah. Sylar giving Angela the kiss of death made me laugh because it was so creepy. I don't think the dude with the dreadlocks necessarily has the same power that the Haitian does, because when he was done with Hiro, he hadn't forgotten anything. He still knew he had to escape and rescue someone, he was just confused about who that was. So I guess his power is... confusion?
V
The ending was cool, when they showed more ships coming. Hilarious pattern I noticed: every episode has a scene where Ryan hugs his human girlfriend and he makes an "Oh crap, I hope she doesn't find out I'm a V" face over her shoulder.
Glee
Only saw some of the episode, but I don't think I was missing much. Looked like it was mostly about Quinn's baby.
Survivor: Samoa
Clip show this week.
Kenny vs. Spenny
Who can keep a chicken coop on their head the longest? I like when they do these competitions that are really out there. This one was probably more entertaining than funny though, except when Kenny was basically doing a stand-up routine on abortion.
Overall rating for this week's shows: B
Saturday, November 21, 2009
This Week in Television - Nov. 16-20, 2009
Heroes
The stuff with Tracy getting help from Claire after losing control of her abilities was kind of pointless and pretty much the same story we got last season when Elle had the same problem. So if Samuel gets stronger around others with abilities, but he was somehow unaware of this without having seen the film, then the question of why he's gathering people is still up in the air. Disappointed that Sylar left Matt's body since watching those two duke it out was awesome, but maybe it will just continue with Sylar vs. Nathan.
V
Tyler is terrible at lying to his mom and stalling for time. Whatever the V's are planning to use him for, I hope they didn't need an intelligent person, because if so they will fail miserably.
Glee
No Sue at all this week, just some crazy obsessive teenage girls and Kurt trying to convert Finn to homosexuality. In a real life situation I would say it wouldn't happen, but since Glee tends to be unrealistic I wouldn't really be that surprised if Kurt and Finn hooked up at some point, even if it's temporary.
Modern Family
This episode was saved by its guest stars, Elizabeth Banks, who is cool, and Edward Norton, who I don't think of as a character actor but he does a good British accent. I also like the role reversal in having the wife be the one who is terrible with gifts and special occasions instead of the husband. Manny's attraction to Haley just seems like a recycling of the George Michael and Mayby thing from Arrested Development, although in this case I think Manny is Haley's... half uncle?
Survivor: Samoa
I didn't like Laura anyway. I'm still not really rooting for anyone in particular though, and there's only 8 left. Kind of a forgettable season in that sense.
Fringe
Awesome, I always found the observers really fascinating. Glad we got an episode to learn more about them. So if they are observing time, it must be that they are trying to either find something or learn something. And given that they are so bizarrely inhuman, why did that one guy start to have feelings?
Parks and Recreation
The hunting trip was kind of funny, but the best part was April and Andy wasting time doing mundane stuff like playing Marco Polo and practicing spit takes. I think they might get together at some point and would actually make a good couple (albeit a slightly weird one) since they're both so lazy and unmotivated.
The Office
Dwight's Recyclops costume was awesome. Kudos to Jim for punishing Ryan, because sometimes he can really be a smug prick. The ending was great when Dwight was so disgusted with the lineup for questions that he just ended up making suggestions for more efficient lineups.
30 Rock
Frank being the greenest person at TGS: funny; Dr. Spaceman making another appearance: awesome; Kathy Geiss's lawyer being a Teddy Ruxpin doll in a suit: priceless.
Flash Forward
Even back when Olivia first got the text, I knew it wasn't from anyone that Mark told. It's gotta be someone who was involved with the blackout. I like that the majority of the episode was about Bryce, because until now I thought of him as more of a minor supporting character. However it seems too soon to be introducing the girl from his flash forward and setting them up to be situated in the same country, because it looks like the first time they meet is in the vision, which would take place (and air) in the spring.
Kenny vs. Spenny
Season 6 kicked off this week with two episodes. The first was "Who Can 69 the Longest?". I read some of the competitions online and was wondering how they were going to do this one without it being too literal - there was no disgusting oral sex involved, just harnesses keeping them attached to each other in a 69-like position. The funniest part was watching them try to move around, and having the crew decide that it was a boring competition so they tortured them to provoke surrender.
The second episode was "Who can touch the most breasts?", and within minutes the term was quickly distorted to include the breasts of men, cows, chicken, and plastic mannequins and dolls. Surprisingly, I don't think Kenny even touched any bare lady breasts and Spenny got several (They're worth 3 points!).
New record: 11 shows this week! Also, for the first time in... possibly ever... I have at least one show on every weeknight.
Overall rating for this week's shows: A+
The stuff with Tracy getting help from Claire after losing control of her abilities was kind of pointless and pretty much the same story we got last season when Elle had the same problem. So if Samuel gets stronger around others with abilities, but he was somehow unaware of this without having seen the film, then the question of why he's gathering people is still up in the air. Disappointed that Sylar left Matt's body since watching those two duke it out was awesome, but maybe it will just continue with Sylar vs. Nathan.
V
Tyler is terrible at lying to his mom and stalling for time. Whatever the V's are planning to use him for, I hope they didn't need an intelligent person, because if so they will fail miserably.
Glee
No Sue at all this week, just some crazy obsessive teenage girls and Kurt trying to convert Finn to homosexuality. In a real life situation I would say it wouldn't happen, but since Glee tends to be unrealistic I wouldn't really be that surprised if Kurt and Finn hooked up at some point, even if it's temporary.
Modern Family
This episode was saved by its guest stars, Elizabeth Banks, who is cool, and Edward Norton, who I don't think of as a character actor but he does a good British accent. I also like the role reversal in having the wife be the one who is terrible with gifts and special occasions instead of the husband. Manny's attraction to Haley just seems like a recycling of the George Michael and Mayby thing from Arrested Development, although in this case I think Manny is Haley's... half uncle?
Survivor: Samoa
I didn't like Laura anyway. I'm still not really rooting for anyone in particular though, and there's only 8 left. Kind of a forgettable season in that sense.
Fringe
Awesome, I always found the observers really fascinating. Glad we got an episode to learn more about them. So if they are observing time, it must be that they are trying to either find something or learn something. And given that they are so bizarrely inhuman, why did that one guy start to have feelings?
Parks and Recreation
The hunting trip was kind of funny, but the best part was April and Andy wasting time doing mundane stuff like playing Marco Polo and practicing spit takes. I think they might get together at some point and would actually make a good couple (albeit a slightly weird one) since they're both so lazy and unmotivated.
The Office
Dwight's Recyclops costume was awesome. Kudos to Jim for punishing Ryan, because sometimes he can really be a smug prick. The ending was great when Dwight was so disgusted with the lineup for questions that he just ended up making suggestions for more efficient lineups.
30 Rock
Frank being the greenest person at TGS: funny; Dr. Spaceman making another appearance: awesome; Kathy Geiss's lawyer being a Teddy Ruxpin doll in a suit: priceless.
Flash Forward
Even back when Olivia first got the text, I knew it wasn't from anyone that Mark told. It's gotta be someone who was involved with the blackout. I like that the majority of the episode was about Bryce, because until now I thought of him as more of a minor supporting character. However it seems too soon to be introducing the girl from his flash forward and setting them up to be situated in the same country, because it looks like the first time they meet is in the vision, which would take place (and air) in the spring.
Kenny vs. Spenny
Season 6 kicked off this week with two episodes. The first was "Who Can 69 the Longest?". I read some of the competitions online and was wondering how they were going to do this one without it being too literal - there was no disgusting oral sex involved, just harnesses keeping them attached to each other in a 69-like position. The funniest part was watching them try to move around, and having the crew decide that it was a boring competition so they tortured them to provoke surrender.
The second episode was "Who can touch the most breasts?", and within minutes the term was quickly distorted to include the breasts of men, cows, chicken, and plastic mannequins and dolls. Surprisingly, I don't think Kenny even touched any bare lady breasts and Spenny got several (They're worth 3 points!).
New record: 11 shows this week! Also, for the first time in... possibly ever... I have at least one show on every weeknight.
Overall rating for this week's shows: A+
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