Monsters of Television

“All this life is pain.”

I’m going to try and let go of the complaint about the time skip as much as I can. It’s here to stay, and we all know it’s short-circuiting the show’s character development, so hammering the show on this front is just going to get tiring. Unless a particularly egregious exploitation of the time skip occurs (which I don’t think is likely to happen since “Salvage” answers most of the lingering character questions), I’m not likely to mention it again.

 That being said, the time skip’s implementation here isn’t as bad as has been in previous instances (Aqualad, the M’gann and Conner break-up), and I’m generally okay with the results it (well, not ALL of it, but that’s for after the jump). My bigger issue is that we’re just repeating a lot of what happened last season in whatever this new plan is. Read more »

“I reserve the right to say ‘I told you so’ if we get out of here.”

As predicted, the Maelstrom and Lighthouse provided with some attractive looking set-pieces in a perfectly acceptable action-heavy episode (with some pleasant cutaways to Saint Walker beginning his journey). But as we close in on the end of the first season (the next episode is the season finale), I think I’m about done writing about Green Lantern: The Animated Series.

I know I should probably be announcing that next week (and the finale will be covered, of course), but since this episode is pretty much what the show does well at this point (slick looking action sequences with solid Razer one-liners), I don’t see much reason to hold back on that. I’ll likely continue to watch the show beyond the first season finale, but not sure it’ll be back on the blog unless there’s a particularly compelling (negatively or positively) episode. Read more »

“You can’t be afraid to mix it up sometimes.”

Damn you, Daniel Dae Kim! You turned out to be Gavin Park and not Jin Kwon!

Anyway, apart from my feelings of voice casting betrayal, “The Aftermath” offers a bit of place setting for the remainder of the season after Amon’s big showcase at the pro-bending final. But it kind of zips by, too. Perhaps it was just my mood, but I felt like the episode was a little disjointed between the “Sato-mobile racing!” and “Law & Order: Republic City.” The two halves didn’t quite fit for me, and I generally preferred the second half to the lighter first half (though Bolin and Pabu still manage to slay me).

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“This is a lock of my hair.”
[with cautious affection] “Creepy.”

So I thought this entry was going to waaaaaaaay too long, but it’s in fact going to be relatively short. This isn’t because the episode are bad — they aren’t — but that there’s nothing particular bonkers about them (well, “Digital Estate Planning” is bonkers, but I’ll talk about it). They’re just solid, well-balanced episodes of Community, episodes that demonstrate what this show does well: lots of laughs, risk-taking, and generally satisfactory character moments.

I’m going to take just a moment to address “Digital Estate Planning” on its own, and then the other two episodes work well enough as a unit.

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“Did I really just say my mom looks like a cookie?”

I didn’t tune in for much of last year’s season of The Next Food Network Star (now named Food Network Star and hereafter referred to as FNS because that’s still a lot to type) because…well…I haven’t the slightest idea. I think it was because something else was on (was I watching The Killing…I don’t know), but I do think one reason was that I felt like, after writing about it during the season before it, I had a pretty solid grasp on the show.

But thanks to promos while watch Chopped All-Stars (I hope Chris Santos has learned a little something about how hard it is on the other side of that chopping block), I was drawn back to check in, at least just for the premiere, Food Network Star. Bouncing off the success of The Voice (and, I guess, The X Factor (or vice versa)), the show has placed each of their contestants under the tutelage of Bobby Flay, Giada De Laurentiis, and Alton Brown as they vie for the Food Network contract.

This is a rather interesting decision on their parts. De Laurentiis was originally added to the show to provide something of a mentorship role for the contestants, but she never really seemed to do much mentoring as the contestants struggled to improve their on-camera presence and develop their culinary point of view (CPOV) with not much in the way of assistance. My hope is, with dedicated mentors, that the caliber and growth of the contestants is less frustrating than it was two seasons ago. Read more »

“I don’t think about you at all.”

Betty remembers when everyone thought of her as a sex symbol and not the resident fatty.

Regrets abound for not having the time to do a Mad Men review last week. So many opportunities for pop culture references and snark, from Rory Gilmore making another mistake with an old-money douchebag to Don almost getting Drake Ramorayed. I assure you, all the quips I had planned were hilarious.

This week it’s all about violating the sanctity of homes, both physical and physical (if you know what I mean). And physical because Betty could probably eat a Thanksgiving dinner if she’d hop on a treadmill. It is the invasion of privacy and shattering the safety of so many people, whether they know it or not.

Also, Betty reprises her role as being the worst.

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“Anybody else want to scrap with the champs?”

Good grief, show. I mean, I was already liking you. But now I kind of love you. Like, I’m going to buy you something nice. What would you like? Tickets to Ember Island? No, no, you seem more adventurous, so perhaps a guided tour of Serpent’s Pass? (Don’t worry, we’re not going to the Great Divide (why would ANYONE want to go there?!).)

Gushy-gush aside, “And the Winner Is…” should be the episode that convinces any stragglers of the show’s quality to be quiet (provided there were any). It’s a well-executed episode that blends the previous series’s mix of humor, romance, and action to then add in the dashes of the political intrigue that Korra is excelling in thus far. It is, in short, perhaps the epitome of what this series is thus far. Read more »

“A little less fangirl, a little more Wonder Girl.”

So here’s the thing. I knew about some of the  big reveal, which I’ll discuss after the jump (as it’s really the only big thing worth discussing out of this episode), before this episode even aired. One of the downsides of ancillary media (or, you know, the creator of the show telling us about it on his Web site) is that you can get a little spoiled. And that’s fine, it comes with the territory.

But along the lines of M’gann’s turn to gray side of the Force (as it were) and the break-up with Conner, “Alienated” uses the time skip to short circuit what would’ve been interesting and engaging storytelling and this time uses it for shock and wow factor, that leans too heavily on the ‘tell’ instead of the ‘show.’

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“You look like a warrior with all that scar tissue on your face. Or were you born that way?“

…Wait, what? But then, how did they…? I don’t understand. …Why is there…WHAT?

“Flight Club” is a good episode. There’s solid fight sequences, good dialog, and we’re keeping up with the Red Lantern fleet storyline. Sure, the episode kicks Razer and Aya to the side to make room for Hawkmen and Goggin doing ink farts (I was fine with the Hawkmen, less fine with the ink farts), but they get to come back at the end for a couple of a nice moments.

But, guys, please tell me, WHERE THE HELL DID THIS MAELSTROM/THE LIGHTHOUSE THING COME FROM?!

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“We’re all kind of crazy-town banana-pants.“

When this season was just starting, and a number of folks were kvetching about the show’s seemingly single-minded focus on interrogating what it means for the study group to be a group. I was hoping the show would embrace this more, needling and working through the notion that, on sitcoms, the cast rarely interacts with anyone else, and the dysfunctional darkness that it implies.

“Curriculum Unavailable” circles back to this a little bit, and I dug that aspect of the show. But kind of like “Virtual Systems Analysis” I feel like the episode is a little lumpy, taking a bit too long to embrace the darkness that’s been lurking in Community since Jeff and Shirley seriously thought about making sure Chang went to prison. Read more »