Monsters of Television

“Because you knew if I stayed here, I’d be faced with an impossible choice.“

“The Beast Below” is an episode that shows that the new series of Doctor Who is still not done cooking.

To be fair, I’ve always found the second episode of any new series in the relaunch to be a little “Meh.” Sure, “The End of the World” had the Doctor grooving to “Tainted Love”, but it was a weak episode overall. “Tooth and Claw” has a LOT of running around (even for a Davies episode), “The Shakespeare Code” is just plain bad (so bad), and “The Fires of Pompeii” retraces old ground about the companion wanting to alter time to save some bystanders. Indeed, the job of the second episode seems to be to provide any newcomers to the franchise a sense of how the show operates. And while this is an admirable thing, it’s still something that your first episode should really accomplish.

A part of this could just be the expectations that I have for Moffat’s brand of storytelling. He excels at creepiness (“Are you my mummy?”) and working in humor to those situations (“All that dancing!”) so that both feel exceptionally enhanced. Of course Moffat’s not writing all of these episodes, so I shouldn’t expect it all the time, but there’s very clearly a thematic bent to the series that I hope the rest of the staff is able to follow through on. As a result, “The Beast Below” has a great deal of potential for creepiness and twisted fairy tale stuff, but it’s not exactly fork tender yet.

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“Not give a shit, like a human being.”

Party Down is a show that I only know from Netflix Watch Instantly. I don’t get Starz ( orany premium cable for that matter), so I didn’t find out about the show until last winter when I mainlined the series. At first I wasn’t keen on the show, but about four episodes in the show and I found each other, and I can feel very confident in declaring it a brilliant comedy series that needs more and more eyeballs watching it.

To introduce the show, since I’m sure a few of you may not be watching it (yet), I’ll simply say it deals with the trials and tribulations of a group of catering service employees, all of whom have grander dreams than to serve little sandwiches at really weird functions (ranging from a botched sweet 16 party to a celebration of a Russian mobster). Each episode finds the cast in a new situation, so functions as a workplace comedy with an ever changing workplace.

But the show is also a squirm comedy, like Curb Your Enthusiasm (though not nearly as squirm-inducing). It’s happy to take apart social mores, but more with a sly wink than a pregnant linger like Curb. It’s a show that’s funny and heart breaking, with sublime writing and stellar acting. You need to be watching it. Read more »

“Think slutty Grace Kelly.”

A double dose of 30 Rock would normally be cause for celebration. However, this season’s lack of consistency (or funny) has resulted in a mixed bag of humor and enjoyment. And that gets represented in these two episodes. “Lee Marvin vs. Derek Jeter” is the stronger of the two, with solid comedy and a nicely balanced episode without a lot of poorly developed storylines. “Khonani,” on the other hand, suffers from being repetitive and, really, untimely.

It is a problem that 30 Rock faces due to its weird production schedule (time allowed for Baldwin and Fey to make, and then promote, movies) and then weirder airing sequences. There doesn’t seem to be a throughline in the show any longer, and perhaps a course change is needed. Read more »

“If God were edible, not that I’m Catholic, but if it were cool to eat God, He’d be a chicken finger.”

I really don’t like Goodfellas. Yes, that’s right. I don’t like Goodfellas. I know this amounts to sacrilege for a large number of people, so I apologize in advance for not swooning over Community‘s extended homage to what many consider the greatest gangster movie ever made (for the record, I don’t really like the gangster genre overall).

However, unlike How I Met Your Mother‘s painfully exclusionary baseball episode, Community provides an episode that can work without knowledge of the film that they’re relying on to frame the episode. The reason for this is that Community has established a universe where something like this feels organic and fun. And that’s precisely what this episode is: fun. (I doubt that the chicken fingers were organic.) Read more »

“I’m the Doctor. I’m worse than everybody’s aunt.”

At the end of The End of Time, I cried like a little boy whose favorite toy had been taken away from him. I didn’t want to live in a universe where David Tennant wasn’t the Doctor. He was manic, but brilliant, with a zest for (and a love of) life motivated by the all the carnage and death he had rained down on not only his own people but on those around him. (“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” will never be the same.) And while I am happy to have Tennant stretch himself elsewhere, the 10th Doctor’s departure was one I simply didn’t want to see.

So poor Matt Smith had a great deal to live up to. Indeed, there was no pressure on Steven Moffat, his writing and creative chops having already been proven in previous episodes (if you haven’t watched “Silence in the Library” / “Forest of the Dead” two-parter for some reason, you need to go and do that). Indeed, the trailer following The End of Time did have the feel, as one of my friends put it, of being The Young Doctor Who Chronicles. Eventual trailers created sparks of hope about Smith’s ability to fill the role, but they’re trailers: they’re supposed to get you excited.

But after watching “The Eleventh Hour” (Get it?), I’m pretty much head over heels for this custard loving, bow-tie wearing, chronically late Doctor. And while I enjoyed the episode, after sitting on it for a bit, I’m iffy on a number of factors.

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“Dead people more reliable than alive people.”

I don’t have a whole lot to say about “Everybody Loves Hugo.” This is probably for the best as I’m pretty busy (hopefully the unexpected Glee rant helped ease your need for a fix) and should really be doing other things.

It wasn’t that I didn’t find the episode enjoyable, I did, but it’s clearly the kick off to the tail end of the season as, finally, I think all the pieces are in place (there I go, assuming our characters are pieces in a chess game between larger than life entities…wait…), and I’d almost rather wait and see what happens next week before giving any thoughts about this week. Read more »

You’re benefiting from my motivation failing me (and a desire to generate traffic to the blog, even if it’s just to be told I’m wrong and a hater).

Glee came back last night, and since there was nothing else on, I watched it. When the show went on its hiatus, I had cooled on it considerably. I thought the pilot was great, but as the episodes wore on I found myself starting to dislike the show. My issues were (are) many of the same issues that others had. The wildly inconsistent characterization, even within episodes (not to mention unclear motivation for many characters). Narratively unmotivated, sometimes superfluous, musical numbers. Really idiotic plot lines. Overproduced musical numbers. Engaging in stereotypes without deconstructing them as they think they are. Failing to find a good balance for their ensemble (poor Other Asian).

After having four months to stew on these things (the relentless promoting of the show by Fox certainly didn’t help), I had decided not to watch the return because I knew I would just end up railing against it. And I’m pretty much ready to rail, even if I thought the episode, overall, worked okay. Read more »

In light of April being the cruelest month, I’m taking a small, academically mandated vacation for a couple of weeks. Reviews will still be posted by me (Nick will keep chugging along, I’m sure), just less consistently. I guarantee Lost and probably Doctor Who, but anything else will hinge entirely on my schedule and how well the final push of the semester goes. This week, for example, will be a little sparse. (Maybe HIMYM later in the week; I haven’t even watched the episode yet.)

To make up for it though, I’m giving you some brief thoughts on two things near and dear to my heart: Conan O’Brien and Law & Order. Read more »

“There’s always a choice, brother.”

Call this one “Greatest Hits (Flash Remix by Desmond Hume).”

Throughout “Happily Ever After,” Desmond relives (if that’s even the right word) his best moments from the Island-existing reality in the flash-sideways, albeit slightly scrambled. The episode provides a place to wriggle into the narrative idea of what “caused” the flash-sideways and how it can be reconciled with the rest of the show.

And what’s the thing that reconciles it? The same things that you need to make a good a film: a girl and a nuclear weapon. Wait… Read more »

“Oh, it’s fun here.”

That is a gun in Nichols' belt. And he is happy to take over this show.

I held back on the review of the first episode of season 9 due to its two-parter nature, and that I didn’t have much to say beyond repeating the word “Exposition” 500 times (the minimum amount of words I like to supply for an entry). With the second part, the story comes into focus, as well as motivations for the departure of Goren and Eames.

As a way to hand the show over to Nichols and Stevens (the former’s new partner) the show does this oddly, with some degree of effectiveness. Ultimately what makes the episode (as I’ll treat the two-parter as a single episode) feel a bit off is the issue of jurisdiction, an issue that the episode grapples with as well. Read more »