Monsters of Television

“I’m not strolling the streets of Atlanta with just my good intentions, okay?”

Diggin’ holes.

Do you ever get the feeling that men are just a problem in this show? Nevermind the fact that they’re all racists or adulterers or abusive but they’re also generally useless to the survival of the non-walkers. They serve as lookouts and muscle but only the women help keep the camp functioning with laundry and educating the children and the various other tasks that the men in which the men never seem to participate. I would say this is like some early patriarchal hunter/gatherer society, but, when Daryl’s gone to Atlanta to find Merle and get guns, the women do the hunting, too. Men are just the blight on this struggling society.

On the podcast yesterday, we talked a little bit about how this Lord of the Flies-esque societal regeneration is similar to that of Lost, especially with a hero (Rick) emerging, complete with antagonists both to his power (Merle) and his being (Shane), to help save them from the Others (walkers). Sure, the walkers don’t have a ringleader like Ben or an ancient spiritual leader like Richard but many of them don’t have faces either so we can’t expect too much. The more interesting difference is how the new society is formed with baser instincts: cliques, a bit of mistrust, paranoia, and an surprising lack of unity despite the superficial all-togetherness. There is far more poison in this bunch than on the island, with a few people feeling they have the right to rise to the throne. The inherent fear of their situation, of each other sometimes, and a lack of collaboration to get them out of harm’s way, can only prove to be detrimental to their cause of survival.

It’s like they don’t know that they need learn to live together or die alone.

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“Parallelogram!“

I had a very brief conversation to find out the song used at the end of tonight’s episode (another musical coup for the show this week, and I’ll address it in a little bit), and the responder to my query said it was his favorite episode so far. I don’t think he’s far off base saying that. I’m still very partial to “Shaman of Fear” and “Shadows of Youth”, but I think “Lessons in Love” is a remarkably strong “stand alone” episode, if I can use that term (and I’ll justify its use, too).

I will say this though: “Lessons in Love” proves you should be watching Sym-Bionic Titan if you’re not already. Read more »

“I’m sure we can all think of examples where revenge has worked splendidly.”

I received a pretty high compliment from Justin Fowler on Twitter a few days ago: “One of the reasons I like your blog is that you guys write about shows most other blogs don’t. No Mentalist, tho.”

I like that we write (and now talk) about shows that don’t get a lot coverage at the more visited blogs (though A.V. Club’s new leadership will be adjusting some of that I think). In any case, I decided to thank Justin for his compliment by reviewing this week’s The Mentalist. This was a bit of fun because I’ve never seen an entire episode of The Mentalist (Pysch for life, yo). Based on the promos, I expected a reasonably light, but not too light, procedural about a stylish guy who is seeking the man who murdered his family.

I think I got a different kind of episode than what is normal for this show, as it appears I stumbled onto an episode concerned in some way with the Red John storyline and it was a little darker than I was expecting, especially Patrick Jane himself. Read more »

“You tried to Nancy Screw me out of my free credit!“

My face still hurts from laughing. And my belly. I’m still laughing about some of it while I try and type.

“Conspiracy Theories and Soft Defenses” may not be an episode that people think back to when they rank episodes of Community, but for my money it’s easily one of their single funniest episodes of any sitcom I’ve seen in a while. It’s clever without being overly clever, grounded while still being silly, and allows for yet another glimpse into the characters without making the episode completely about the characters. Read more »

“Everyone says that internet dating is, like, for geeky, socially awkward types, but I meet a lot of people just like me.”

Yes this was a fairly George centric episode. Yes this dealt with a great story in which he had to decide against putting away a mob lieutenant and protecting Jim’s secret. Yes he was given a love interest. But the crowning moments of this episode had to deal with JJ and Katie, both as individuals and in stories with one another.

I’ve said it before and I’m sure this won’t be the last time I say it: Katie is the best character on the show. She fills the role of audience informant very well with her explanations of things, she fills the nerd quota with her constant (and amazing) comic book references and she fills the “lust” role as Daphne is too young and Stephanie is in a committed relationship (even though both are still admittedly beautiful). “No Ordinary Mobster” shows Katie getting more involved in the show not only with the Powells but with the seasonal arc as well.

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“It’s Robin Sparkles 3, ya’ll!”

I was just as excited to hear these words as Ted and company were.

Callbacks are something that How I Met Your Mother does extremely well. The show features some of the best recurring jokes and characters such as “Challenge Accepted”, Robin Sparkles and Slap Bet, the latter two making reappearances in this episode. It’s not just the humor that makes HIMYM the best comedy on TV right now, it’s the emotional resonances, the lessons learned. The Full House moments if you will. Coincidental because Bob Saget is the voice of Future Ted.

“Glitter” isn’t just an episode about Robin Sparkles and porn and space travel, it’s an episode about friendship and growing apart. And math.

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“In lock-up, they won’t let you tweet.”

This is the best episode of The Good Wife so far this season.

Part of this is because it had pretty much everything I’ve come to love in the show. But the other part was that the episode  didn’t have any of the stuff I hate. (Read: There were no Blake and Kalinda shenanigans in this episode. None. Zero. Zilch. So glorious.) But yes, “Bad Girls” had everything in it that marks an episode of The Good Wife: political maneuvering,  law firm maneuvering, a solid case, reasonable Kalinda investigating, good family beats.

There’s a delicate balance to crafting a show with so many things going on at once, and what often happens is that some things fall to the wayside (did Jackie break her hip?) while others gain prominence. Overall, I feel that The Good Wife does a good job of giving all things equal weight though, after sleeping on the episode, I do see the critiques the episode might perhaps try and overreach here.

I still think the episode is considerably stronger than the past few episodes have been, so don’t let my acknowledgment of the critique seem like I’m discounting how much I enjoyed the episode.

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“Whoa, whoa. That sounds like candor.”

If it weren’t for the Dragon*Con photos, I’m not sure I would believe that Summer Glau knows how to smile. Combo Breaker!

Why can’t we start off our seasons with episodes like this? Instead we have to wade through so much garbage before we start to get the story going, right about at the threshold when people stop caring about the show.

It wasn’t perfect but just about everything hit: the spy story, Chuck’s situation, the best Greta yet, even the Chuck and Sarah story had good reveal. There was a point when I even said, “Oh snap.” Out loud. Yeah, I brought that back that’s how good it was.

Okay, I’ll be honest. “Oh snap” never really left my vocabulary. But you can see how impressive that is for Chuck this season. I can’t even think of a moment beyond the past two episodes where an “oh snap” would be appropriate. Maybe they know something we don’t. Maybe they have reason not to worry about ratings and make a bunch of horrible episodes to scare away the riff-raff. And then at the quarter-season mark, they bring out the goods for the True Believers. Excelsior!

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“Boutineer is French for ‘Booty is near.’“

If there’s one thing that How I Met Your Mother does well it’s delay pleasure. Sadly, sometimes the show sometimes can’t sustain the build up and the climax just kind of peters out.  It happens to the best of shows, so I’m willing forgive it every now and then. At least this time the show actually had some game compared to earlier episodes this season.

…That sound really dirty, didn’t it? Read more »

Danger! This woman believes she always knows "what is right." Proceed with caution.

There are two ways to evaluate this episode, the follow up episode to the brutal depiction of Charlotte King’s rape.

First, you can consider the representation of a social issue–rape and its impact upon a survivor and everyone around her.

Second, you can consider the program as a fictional narrative from the perspective of plot, character, theme, etc.

For me to evaluate this episode, I have to do both because I’m rather torn about this episode.

On the first scale, that of the social issue, the episode is problematic, even disturbing.

On the second scale, that of the fictional series, I will focus on character.  In this, the episode excels.

Quite the conundrum for the review, but here I go…

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