Eastbound & Down Review: "Chapter 20" (Episode 3.07)
Danny McBride has recently hedged a little bit about whether or not this is the last season of Eastbound & Down. That was once the plan, and you can tell, based on how many characters have reappeared this year. Because society just couldn’t bear not getting one last tiny taste of Will Ferrell’s weird Ric Flair impersonation.... read more
The Killing Review: "Numb" (Episode 2.03)
We don’t blame you if the first season of AMC’s gloomy The Killing left you with a bitter taste in your mouth. The entire premise of the police investigation was to discover who killed Rosie Larsen. Throughout the 13 episodes of the debut season of the show we followed the investigation conducted by Sarah Linden (Mirelle Enos), veteran detective who was about to leave the force, and Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman), a former narcotics office recently switched over to homicide. The duo navigated through the rainy streets of Seattle, which in itself became a character thanks to the amazing cinematography of the crew. read more
Mad Men Review: "Mystery Date" (Episode 5.04)
If you look closely enough, you'll find that every Mad Men episode has some overarching theme to it, whether it's a lesson we're supposed to glean or just a general mood or feeling that hangs over all the action. read more
Game of Thrones Review: “The Night Lands” (Episode 2.1)
Since I’ve not yet read George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire, I can only assume, based on the HBO show by the same name, that every single chapter contains a sex scene. read more
Community Review: "Pillows and Blankets" (3.14)
It’s not a given that Community‘s theme episodes will be its best ones, that they’ll consistently be television events that everyone’s talking about. But it certainly seems that way, and “Pillows and Blankets” was the most creative one the show’s done since last year’s fake clip show, “Paradigms of Human Memory.” It doesn’t take too big of a stretch to think of turning a sitcom into a western or military show once you establish that you want to regularly parody genres, but a PBS-style documentary is something so far from the show’s original content that it takes things an extra... read more
Touch Review: "Kite Strings" (Episode 1.4)
David Simon, creator of The Wire, recently said in a New York Times interview, that it was unfair for people to criticize his show because they were not aware of the beginning, middle and end, and how everything works together. Simon does have a point, with some shows like The Wire, knowing how all the puzzle pieces fit makes for a more engaging and enjoyable experience. A show like Touch also suffers from this problem. Now while Touch will almost certainly never attain the status of The Wire, considered by many to be one of the greatest shows of all time, it also shares the problem of trying to build a complex interconnecting world, all while keeping the audience engaged without having them know the endgame. But unlike The Wire, which was centralized in Baltimore, Touch connects the entire world, from Iraq to Virginia and everywhere in between. This makes it harder to see how everything will come together in the end. But with “Kite Strings”, for the first time since the pilot, Touch feels like it has an endgame in mind, one that will at the very least attempt to connect all these disparate stories. read more
New Girl Review: "Secrets" (Episode 1.19)
On New Girl, the only truly sustained “relationship” has been between Schmidt and Cece, a barely-friends-with-benefits that has been hidden from everyone. But since last week’s episode involved Winston finding out about this pair up, we knew it wouldn’t take long for the entire apartment to find out and quickly be surprised and disgusted by the duo. In fact everyone in the group finds out about the unholy alliance before the first commercial, thanks to Nick’s fear of secrets. In the appropriately titled “Secrets”, the group starts to learn the secrets within each other that they kind of with would have remained secret. read more
Justified Review: “Coalition” (Episode 3.12)
In the end, it all comes down to character. Character, as Heraclitus said, is destiny. We should know exactly how things are going to end up, seeing as we know these characters like we’re related to them at this point (any resemblances these characters may have to any members of my actual family are purely coincidental). Yet somehow nothing ever seems to go quite like I imagine it on this show. read more
Shameless Review “Fiona Interrupted” (2.12)
The creators of Showtime’s _Shameless_ deserve a hefty “thank you” for ending Season Two with an episode filled with a sense of resolution as opposed to closing with last week’s cliffhanger episode. Now, I look forward to a season of new and compelling plot lines just waiting to develop. read more
Game of Thrones: Season 2 Premiere
Season 2 of Game of Thrones begins where Season 1 ends—with a death. This one is for the entertainment of King Joffrey, the sadistic boy who called for the head of Lord Stark at the end of the first season. His wife, young Sansa Stark is forced to watch his cruelty and call her father a traitor. It doesn’t take long for The Imp, Tyrion Lannister to remind us why we missed this show, as he arrives in King’s Landing as the representative of his father. “You love your children,” he tells his sister, the Queen mother Cersei. “It’s your... read more
Mad Men Review: "Tea Leaves" (Episode 5.03)
"When's everything going to go back to normal?" It's a question—posed sort of half-jokingly, half-desperately from Roger to Don after Pete shows him up in front of the entire office—that everyone seems to be grappling with to some extent on this week's Mad Men. read more
Fringe Review: “Nothing As It Seems” (Episode 4.16)
I’m going to pick some nits before this is over, but let’s get one thing clear off the top. This was the most entertaining episode of Fringe in quite some time. Not the most emotional or most informative or most eye-opening, but easily the most entertaining. read more
Community Review: "Digital Exploration of Interior Design" (3.13)
While last week’s episode of Community was the type of densely pop-culture-based humor that the show’s derided for, this week’s was in a lot of ways much less accessible despite being one of the most traditionally structured the show’s ever done. “Digital Exploration of Interior Design” had three tight, self-contained plots, each of them based upon issues in the show’s continuity. “Contemporary Impressionists” had a lot about the need for change within the group dynamics, but here we see it on-screen, and this is the result, with many characters actively working through problems previously set up.... read more
Up All Night Review: "Letting Go" (Episode 1.22)
This is it, the penultimate episode of Up All Night’s first season. Freshman comedies can go one of two ways. First: it could crash and burn halfway through. Second: it could actually succeed. It’s a pretty easy coin toss, but it’s one that terrifies networks. What exactly makes a show a good one? Plot to make the initial concept appealing. Acting that makes the characters loveable. Even the sets to make it look realistic and not cheap. read more
New Girl Review: "Fancyman (Pt. II)" (Episode 1.18)
In the first part of the “Fancyman” series of episodes, we saw Nick and Jess taking the high road, to become decidedly more adult in their futures. Jess decided to go out with the successful and older Russell, played by Dermot Mulroney, while Nick wanted to embark in the world of leather chairs, fancy sweaters and a deeper understanding of hunting. With the second part, we see the polar opposite of the two, while watching as Cece, Schmidt and Winston become a bit wiser in their approaches. read more
Touch Review: "1+1=3" (Episode 1.02)
When Fox decided to premiere the pilot of its new show _Touch_ two months ago, it was an odd way for the network to debut its newest drama. Airing your pilot separate from the rest of the series can be a way for viewers to build excitement for your upcoming show, but after watching the show’s second episode “1+1=3”, it seems more likely that Fox was trying to have some distance between _Touch_’s promising debut and its incredibly familiar yet much weaker follow up episode. read more
Awake Review: "Kate Is Enough" (Episode 1.04)
_Awake_ is such a strange breed of show. Personally, I can’t stand procedural shows. I have rarely ever watched _CSI_, _NCIS_, _Law & Order_, or any other acronym shows, unless I was forced to. Procedurals bore me with their fill in the blanks nature from episode to episode, which makes them perfect for syndication. It’s not so much the idea of the procedural that bothers me, it’s the fact that next week whatever crime that has just been solved will not matter. Yet when _Awake_ does it, I get excited about it. I enjoy the show’s constant flipping between realities and searching for clues in various forms. With “Kate Is Enough”, _Awake_ is almost completely about the cases at hand, yet because Awake is different enough to be refreshing, _Awake_ pulls off its procedural aspects wonderfully. read more
Archer Review: "Space Race: Part 2" (Episode 3.13)
_Archer_ is a show that knows its strengths. People love to see the spy parodies, drunk antics of Archer and overall insanity that occurs at the ISIS offices. But one thing that _Archer_ occasionally tries to do is change. Throughout the season, we’ve seen as the relationship between Malory and Archer grows into one of a bigger understanding between the two. More importantly, the season has dealt with Archer not exactly getting what he wants. The season started with him dealing with the loss of his love in the “Heart of Archness” series of episodes and the season only continued to toy with Archer’s consistent need to get his way. We’ve seen this season as Archer deal with losing the ideal of a childhood hero, his dream car, his possible father and lost his love again to his archenemy, Robo-Barry. This all culminates in the season finale, where the greatest moment isn’t something hilarious done by Archer, but rather a selfless act that shows character growth, regardless of how short it lasts. read more
Eastbound & Down Review: "Chapter 19" (Episode 3.06)
And the garage is for cars.... read more
Shameless Review: "Just Like the Pilgrims Intended" (Episode 2.11)
In what is easily the most emotional episode of the series, everything breaks loose when Karen has her baby, Monica attempts suicide, Steve goes back to being Jimmy and Carl shoots a bald eagle with an Uzi. The dichotomy between the show’s heartlessness and compassion rises to a peak befitting a season-ending episode, except that it’s not. Lucky for us there’s one show left. read more
