Monsters of Television

“As long as my face doesn’t look like Chris Hansen, your guests will be fine.”

So as you may or may not be aware, Nick and I are huge fans of Gilmore Girls. We find nothing embarrassing about this because Gilmore Girls is a damn fine show. Stop judging us. YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND OUR LOVE.

Anyway.

We were both understandably intrigued by Bunheads when it started circulating given our Amy Sherman-Palladino love (and it didn’t look like Jezebel James, which was a plus). So we both watched it and then discussed it in a small chat session, hence the more conversational tone.  –Noel Read more »

“Not every little girl gets to do what they want. The world could not support that many ballerinas.”

The five partners audition for a part in Dark City. Later, Roger goes the extra mile.

That was a finale?

Call me jaded or spoiled but I expect more of a cliffhanger or at least something a little more shocking in my Mad Men season finales. There were no major shifts with the business (adding real estate doesn’t count). No head-scratching proposals. No dynamic changes at all.

With last week’s shocking (if not surprising) episode, it almost felt like we got a breather week but with nothing afterward. That’s not to say that this week’s episode wasn’t good-to-great. Upon further inspection, you can see that it wraps up the season-long thesis of loneliness. Everyone’s life sucks and they’re isolated and they’re alone because no one understands them in this world that’s leaving them behind. Come back for more!

We may leave this season without shocking revelations but we find them in greater misery than they were at the end of any other season. The show plumbs new lows in order to establish that this is the darkest timeline. And the end-of-episode montage tells me that this was the end of the season. It just doesn’t feel that way.

Let’s take a tour of the sad.

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“You’re safe now.”

Well, we were due for something of an even episode after the general air of intensity we’ve been experiencing since “And the Winner is…”. The episode isn’t bad, but it doesn’t have the same dynanism as even “The Aftermath” had. But perhaps this is because I’ve come not to like episodes that are focused on answering questions instead of telling a story (I blame some of Lost for this).

“Out of the Past” also has the unfortunate position of needing to resolve the Tarrlok story so the remaining three episodes of the season can focus fully on the last push against Amon. (Did you catch those previews for the 1-hour (meaning 2 episodes) finale? Cray-cray.) As a result, the episode feels more like a prerequisite than a strong unit of narrative in the grand scheme of things.

But at least the last five or eight minutes were pretty good. Read more »

“There’s no static on a psychic link!”

Sorry if you were hankering for a post about last week’s Flash-tacular episode. Between Impulse (my exposure is limited to last week’s episode and the current Teen Titans comic, and in both cases I don’t really like Bart) and time travel (an unnecessary attempt to raise the stakes for characters we barely know/haven’t developed a relationship with) I didn’t have much to say about the episode that I didn’t just say in a few words.

“Depths” on the other hand does offer something to talk about, whether we like it or not, and perhaps serves as a minor corrective to the issue of not knowing/haven’t developed a relationship phrase I used above (though I’m sure that a nuclear apocalypse isn’t going to happen, so it’s still unnecessary stake raising), though I’m not sure how much I even care now. Read more »

“Last night never happened.”

What this show is all about: schemes, remembering, sleuthing, modesty.

You know, maybe people would stop calling you liars if you stopped doing shady crap.

It’s been five months since these attractive diminutive fibbers unmAsked and committed their bully to Rosewood’s Arkham Asylum but none of them have really learned anything from their trials. Nothing’s really changed for them, other than attempting to convince each other of safety. But not one of them has been able to let go of the trauma and detective work that dominated the last year (it’s only been a story world year?) of their lives.

Well, maybe Aria. But we’ll get to her grossness.

The season premiere is all about the difference between what people say to each other and what they actual think and do. The girls present with the illusion of safety while constantly investigating everything that undermines that illusion. Sadly, their investigations are about the modern-day equivalent of a Scooby-Doo operation.

And something tells me that the new attacks aren’t coming from a person that will blow up in a self-righteous, self-important rage that reveals all the secrets. The girls will actually have to do something this time.

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“No, I don’t want to be a partner. I’ve seen what’s involved.”

Lane in his usual pose of World's Most Pathetic.

I didn’t expect to see it.

Everything about Lane since getting into bed with S, C, and D has been hard to watch, like watching someone voluntarily get hit in the stomach after asking for another. He’s not like the others when they make their mistakes. Pete’s humiliations, Don’s scrapes with being discovered, Roger’s conjugal buffoonery — they’re easier to watch because you know they’ll bounce back. Maybe they won’t be the same or they’ll lower their own expectations for themselves but they bounce back. Lane never seemed to have the constitution to be one of those people.

And so, this season, he sinks lower and lower. His wife goes from homesick harpie to ever-supportive which makes the unfortunate series of bad decisions by Lane so much more awful. He doesn’t have the charisma, the stamina, the wherewithal that the other partners have and season 5 for Lane Pryce is about how, while others flourish in the chaos of a fledgling enterprise, he flounders but is too prideful to admit he can’t keep up.

I just didn’t expect to actually see it.

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“Please help us. You’re our Avatar, too.”

Well then.

I’ve been dinging the show (ever so lightly) for its not demonstrating any oppression of non-benders. Sure, the council is comprised entirely of benders, as is the police force, but since the show hasn’t completely explored those as issues for non-benders, and Amon’s speeches have never leaned too heavily on the idea that the lawmakers and law enforcers are benders (though it seems like a ripe avenue for speechifying).

But with “When Extremes Meet” we finally get to see some of that oppression, all in the name of safety (of a select few)!, begin to play out. And it’s genuinely exciting and horrifying with small moments that sell the notion of oppression that the series hasn’t made a convincing case of until now.   Read more »

“You’ve just seen that unattainable object speed by, just out of reach. Because they do that, don’t they? Beautiful things.”

These two are really into hands.

Ah, remember the halcyon days when Pete had even some tattered shreds of redeeming qualities? Did those days ever exist?

Pete’s cartoonish villainy aside (seriously, when the facial hair boom of the ’70s hits, he’s the only one that’s going to be sporting a Snidely Whiplash), the title of this episode harkens back to last season’s “The Beautiful Girls.” While we don’t have Ms. Blankenship (God rest her soul), Dr Faye (understandably), and Sally Draper (not understandably), we focus on the women at SCDP that represent the “mistress,” literally and figuratively, and catch up with some of the ladies we last saw in positions of upward mobility. And they still are. Depending on how you look at it.

And sometimes that filter has to be pretty disgusting to see it.

Did I mention that Pete is the living worst? Because he is.

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“Oh, really? Would you have felt the need to justify an all-male squad for a mission?”

I rather liked “Beneath” but that could have entirely been because Batgirl figured prominently into it.

The episode isn’t too busy, balancing only two plots with each other, plots that do tie into together, so the episode has a solid footing on which both plots can be executed without feeling disparate. It also isn’t overly convoluted or inserts action sequences for the sake of action sequences. Instead, it stages a really nice set piece at the end that feels earned and exciting.

It’s a nice change of pace for the show, even if I do feel like we’re about to rehash some plot points from another show.
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“I won’t lounge here in luxury while evil triumphs!”

I’m still not likely to return to routinely writing about Green Lantern: The Animated Series when its second season starts, but it’s nice to go out on a high note.

“Homecoming” manages to achieve a very nice balance of its plots, both to this specific episode and paying off the season-long Red Lantern threat. It has solid action, some decent humor, and seems to indicate, at least I hope, that the next season may be a little more Earth-bound (though I doubt it).

I’d actually go so far as to say that it is likely the best episode the series has released. Read more »