Monsters of Television

“It makes me angry! Wanna see me channel that anger?!”

Flash would be so proud of Wally for getting beaten by Black Canary. Kid Flash: WIN

Six words: Superboy angry! Superboy smash! Noel yawn!

Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration as I did like the episode overall, but you get my point. As was mentioned earlier, Superboy is pretty much defined by his anger issues, which has made him kind of uninteresting. Not saying that he doesn’t have a right to those issues, but the show hasn’t done anything to make those issues be more than a character shorthand and not a part of Superboy’s (hopefully) larger personality.

But this episode does make steps to remedy this flatness as it allows Superboy the opportunity to begin working through his anger (and for Batman to tell Superman to, well, Superman up). Read more »

“I attack them with my Additional Notes.”

When How I Met Your Mother did an episode that was heavy on sports references and terminology (complete with a Yankee with a faux hawk), I wasn’t thrilled because it closed me out of the episode’s story and many of its jokes (I recently saw a rerun and still felt a closed out from it). “Advance Dungeon & Dragons” may very well be the episode of exclusion for some, and while I loved the episode (I think it rivals “Modern Warfare”, frankly), I also think it could be an example of that Web adage: Your mileage may vary. Read more »

“Carob chips, anyone?”

I’ve been waiting for a Cary-centric episode all season, and “Silly Season” is as close I’ll ever probably get to one. I mean, I get why we couldn’t have a purely Cary-centric episode on the show (aside from the fact that the show it’s called The Good Cary), but I’ll take what I can get.

Overall “Silly Season” is a strong episode (aside from Blake, who just seems to bring out the pissy in everyone he meets (except Bond)), and one that rewards viewers familiar with the show’s big moments (Bishop’s relations with Lockhart-Gardner, Peter finding the condoms in the bed side drawer) while still managing to tell a pretty self-contained story and continue the season’s larger stories. Indeed, it’s a very find example of what the show does best. Read more »

“Oh, feelings. I see why you came to me.”

Alexei, you might be my favorite.

Two weeks ago, we watched “vs The Balcony” and its structure completely crumble around one of the most important plot arcs in the series. Up there with the Chucknsarah relationship and Chuck balancing a normal life with being the Intersect (regretfully, the latter of which has been hastily abandoned), the correlation between Chuck/Sarah and Orion/Frost has been the ultimate reflection for the future of the core relationship and the ghost that haunts it, even if the arc has defied Chuck’s general stance on being completely obvious about all plotlines. Of course, I flew into reactionary rage about it, whining about the show’s inconsistency and how one of the most important turnarounds the show has accomplished in four seasons was sullied by a “vs the Honeymooners”-esque level of camp.

However, the last two episodes have made up for it.

Granted, I’m a little disappointed we’ve come so far in this arc in the last two episodes but I’m also not at all surprised. Chuck typically likes to come up with a good idea and then burn through it like filler episodes are the sweet, sweet relief to the overexcitement that comes with story. From a different series, I might have expected something a little more drawn out so that the confrontation that happens in “vs The Push Mix” might actually occur closer to the end of the season. That felt like the natural progression for something like this, especially we’re only a little more than halfway through the remaining episodes.

But, to be fair, it appears Chuck has something else in mind for the culmination of the season.

Read more »

“No capes. No tights.“

Well, that was better than last week.

I’m still having problems getting a bead on Young Justice despite talking about being patient last week. Certainly “Drop-Zone” is a great deal easier to watch than “Welcome to Happy Harbor” (M’gaan is, thankfully, only in her awful civvies at the end of the episode), and it does a better job of using characters, plot, and theme to create a more fully realized unit of story.

I still quibbles, but I suspect that they have more to do with what I expect from the show than what the show actually will involve, given target demographics and, well, the age of the characters involved. Yes, I’m not crazy about the ‘shipping that is shaping up. Read more »

Do I see a tear? God, I hope so, you sensitive beast.

The Vampire Diaries is back! The Vampire Diaries is back! Hey, did you hear, TVD is back!!  Okay, now that I have that out of my system, I can move on.

Hate to say it, though, not sure I loved this episode. I liked it. I mean, it featured the return of a character I really like and the departure of a character I really did not. There were two impulsive kisses, a sweet hug between Elena and Damon, and actual, sincere Damon tears! You’d think that would all add up to a truly excellent episode. So, let’s try to figure out why I’m not using as many exclamation marks for this particular episode as I would for the series as a whole.

I should also probably issue a small apology to poor, tortured Rose. I’ve been pretty mean to her, and I suppose I liked her character a teensy bit more this week. Sort of. Since she was dying from a werewolf bite, Rose was suddenly all philosophical and telling people to want to live and that kind of stuff. Not sure the character earned all the heartfelt conversation, but since Rose was basically used (and disposed) by the showrunners as a tool more than a character, I can appreciate her for the purpose she served with regard to Damon. Because Damon’s story is the only reason to celebrate this episode.  More about that after the jump.

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“…every dollar from the period fairy.”

Obviously I like Community, and a lackluster episode is often more enjoyable than other comedies on television. “Celebrity Pharmacology” falls into this category. It’s good, but it’s not terribly inspired. And as Cory Barker tweeted to me last night (and then wrote about in his own review), the episode is pretty broad.

Last week, I needled Perfect Couples for being broad (okay, I  skewered it), but this shouldn’t imply that I don’t like broadness, or think it’s incapable of being funny or entertaining. Broad comedy is great if it’s well-executed, and while Community does kind of stick the landing in the episode. It’s just that the episode a bit creaky in its broadness: anti-drug message gone awry, mistaken text messaging, friendships challenged by money. When I said Perfect Couples would be good as a Disney show, I didn’t realize that Community would do an episode right out of Hannah Montana. Read more »

“Hello Megan!”

Um. Yeah. No. That wasn’t good.

Red Tornado is totally photo-blocking Young Justice's big damn heroes moment.

I’ll grade on a curve since the episode does have the difficult task of still establishing the foundation of the team’s dynamics and introducing a new character (and we still have one more team member to introduce (when does Artemis join up, and can it be sooner rather than later?) only makes me a little nervous about the show) in an episode that doesn’t allow much room to breathe, and what breathing room there is isn’t very well done.

What it boils down to is that the show itself hasn’t figure out the dynamics of its core cast yet. And this is different from the characters not having their dynamics figured out yet. One is poor planning and murky writing while the other is drama.

But is only the third episode, so there’s still time to figure all that out. Read more »

“I agree with brown Jamie Lee Curtis.”

Community begins to pay off some of its larger storylines in “Asian Population Studies,” particularly Chang’s quest to join the study group (to destroy it) as well as Shirley’s pregnancy as a result of her night of radioactive taco beef zombifiaction fling with Chang. Likewise back from the undead is Rich, who Annie spent the winter break with doing do-good, and is now seeing as a potential boyfriend for herself.

The episode is played straighter than most Community episodes, but doesnt quite reach the heights of “Mixology Certification” in terms of the show’s sense of grounded reality (or what passes for it on this show). On the other hand, it does address the idea of what happens when you have put a particularly sitcom-y character like Chang and try and introduce him into a group of self-aware genre nuts. I just don’t know if there’s much new in that story since the show already kind of did it last season. Read more »

“I hear you, cherished partner.“

So I recapped the preview of Perfect Couples that aired back in December and found a great deal to dislike in the episode. I was going to skip viewing the pilot, but Matt begged me to check it out just for his own amusement. Adding to this review happening is that the folks who got screener copies of this episode and the second episode said that these episodes were somewhat better than the preview episode.

They’re not wrong, but Perfect Couples remains an obnoxious show that I have no desire to ever revisit again. (Sorry, Matt.) Read more »