Monsters of Television

“Stimulus money has gone to stimulust.”

Last time on Law & Order, I wrote about comedic guest stars on the show and why they may come to the franchise. It’s an idea I still really like, and would develop further given the time and money to pour through the various appearances such actors have made. This week I want to keep going with the guest star, but I want to talk about another facet of the guest star: the “Hey! I know that actor! And they’re not playing a defense attorney?  They did it.” mentality.

Yes, it’s true. The guest star can be a problem for the procedural. They suck all the narrative mystery out of a procedural because why would any show pay a fairly familiar face to just hang out and look cool in the background? They can pay someone scale (or slightly better) to do that! Instead, you pay that familiar face to draw audiences and/or have a powerful scene near the end of the show (to earn that Emmy). Read more »

“I am not letting you shoot a tiger. They are endangered and majestic.”

This has nothing to do with the plot.

Better.

After an episode where Chuck and Sarah act like foolish children, it’s a relief to find them as just regular old romantic idealists. After three years of repression, the compression of their relationship makes sense and their reaction to being unburdened feels right. Last week, they were such idiots that not even a new relationship compounded by the romantic intoxication of Europe could explain how experienced spies could be such rubes. But, in Burbank, Sarah seems much more grounded and Chuck — well, Chuck has been waiting for this not only for the past three years but his enitre life so he’s footloose and fancy-free. Even if last week had some moments where the couple worked in-synch with each other to demonstrate how close they were, it seemed almost surreal, like some saccharine dream Chuck was having. Here, they work as a team and it doesn’t feel cheesy. It’s the coupling as I’d hoped it would be: a continuation of their previous relationship just more comfortable.

Maybe one day they can be as cool a couple as Morgan and Casey.

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“A dirty dirty sex bed.”

Oh, hey, it’s that show I haven’t written about in two episodes. Is it still on? I could’ve sworn that shows stopped airing when I stopped writing about them (as a result, I have no idea how Nick has managed to just magically create episodes of White Collar or Parenthood to review).

Tonight’s HIMYM is odd in a couple of ways. First is my realization that the show has essentially become Scrubs and second is that I’m not entirely sure that the show earns its ending. It’s certainly sentimental, and it should have some emotional heft to it, but I feel like the show has veered too far away from where it once was to really make it work (plus it’s directed at the wrong character). Read more »

“Second base is reading Tennyson.”

This is the shot that’s going in all of Peter Krause’s future press materials.

Daughters are nothing but trouble. If you have one, you’d better lock her up in a tower because all they do is lie, cheat, and break vases. Sons, on the other hand, are honest and endearing. They may be a little troublesome but, as you know, boys will be boys.

At least that is the general sentiment of this episode. “Perchance to Dream” focuses almost exclusively on relationships with the daughter: mother vs daughter (Julia/Sydney), father vs daughter (Adam/Haddie), mother and daughter vs The World (Sarah/Amber), and, the happiest couple of the group, the couple without a daughter (Crosby/Jasmine).

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“What does hate look like?”

As I’ve said, I’m not the biggest Dalek fan. I couldn’t totally explain why if prompted. Maybe it has something to do with their near-invulnerability. In any case, I was pleased that the Dalek episode was taken care of sooner rather than later.

“Victory of the Daleks” isn’t a great episode (which is fine since next week’s episode is superb). It essentially serves as the pilot episode for the new Daleks that will plague this Doctor during his tenure. The upside is that the episode affords us some more insight into the Doctor ever developing personality.

And, you know, Amy in a denim mini-skirt and cowboy boots. During the London Blitz.

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“Krypton will rise again. And all humankind will kneel before Zod.”

Season 9 has been one very long crawl to an endgame that we all know is coming. Chloe, Oliver, the audience. Everyone knows Zod is evil and that Clark is gonna have to man up and kick his ass. As lines become drawn and the endgame creeps nearer, Superman-to-be may finally be catching up to everyone else. And he’s the one with the super speed.

This episode took a very “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” approach to relationship forging between the characters. Old rivals and foes having to sacrifice their pride and set aside their differences for a grater goal. We saw Chloe and Tess working together to break out of a lock-down at Watchtower and escape the clutches of Checkmate’s White Knight.What began as a Tess Mercer attempt at data thievery turned into a very sexy remake of Panic Room. While the two ladies had to team up to break out as Checkmate bared down on them, that didn’t stop them from tossing the usual witty quips at one another. Chloe won for the night: “I knew you were the Kandorians lapdog but I didn’t know you were Zod’s little bitch too.” But at the end of the day, an uneasy alliance between the two was formed. How long will that last? Read more »

“You’re with me now.”

It is a moving the pieces episode, as Jason Mittell noted. I’m not going to gripe about it, though a part of me really wants to. I defended “Recon” when it aired, but that was in large part because the episode was both narratively and emotionally needed, a breather episode as I called it, a way to regroup after the havoc in previous episodes.

“The Last Recruit” lacks the emotional necessity that made “Recon” work. Without the emotional attachment, “The Last Recruit” feels like narrative vegetables, something that’s good for the story, but that I don’t really want. Did we have lingering questions? Yes (well, question, really, and that was Desmond’s fate down in the well), but there wasn’t much else hanging in the air that we needed to recover from in the previous episodes. So “The Last Recruit” may serve, as Mittell notes, as the first hour in the show’s two-part finale structure (tramping through the jungle, getting onto transportation, things exploding) before settling into the thrilling conclusion. Read more »

“Do you even remember what it was like to have a dream?”

In last night’s Community review I discussed a bit about the importance of maintaining a balance in an ensemble, and how Community showcases the ability to make being unbalanced not only a conflict for the plot, but to show how important each member is. Party Down is still trying to work the kinks in the role of Lydia, and the overall comedy in the show is suffering a bit for it.

I think Lydia could work within the ensemble, but I feel like when the character was conceptualized (a stage mom) they didn’t figure out a way to better integrate her position as someone who wants stardom (even if indirectly through her daughter) among all these other people, toiling away at their dreams. Indeed, it’s why Charlotte worked so well: she had already hit her height as an actress and was able to provide absurd mentorly advice. What is Lydia’s role in this show? Read more »

“I once met Sting at a Cracker Barrel.”

I often worry about running out things to say about Community. I can only say so many nice things every week about this show, and at some point I think I’m going to get repetitive. I almost want a bad episode to happen so I can lament it, say “Oh, I knew it when…” for a nice change of pace. I doubt this will happen.

“The Art of Discourse” is a very fine episode, with plenty of nice laughs but also some good structural elements in play, even if the the one element I wanted to pay off, the conflict between Jeff and Britta with the jerk-ass high schoolers, didn’t really reach the conclusion I wanted.

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“After missing so many little deaths, he should be here for the big one.”

Are we to believe that Taub could really pull this?

Taub is a jackass. I didn’t like him when he was selected from the pool of candidates that gave us Kutner and 13. I didn’t like him his first go-round as a fellow. I cheered when he left and growled when he came back (even though he was reintroduced with 13). So you can imagine my distaste when we have a Taub-centric episode. But, whenever they want to do a show about cheating spouses, they have to wheel out the hobbit.

The patient with the cheating heart is part of an open marriage and she, in fact, is about to get down with a sex buddy when she has an attack in her bowls. The idea of an open marriage intrigues the man-children of the group (i.e. not Chase or Foreman) and puts the idea in Taub’s itty bitty head that this might be a good idea to bring up to his wife.

What should have ensued was a loud guffaw from his long suffering wife but, instead, this is really the main source of non-patient drama for the episode because we’re to assume Taub is some kind of dwarvian lethario. We can only assume it’s because he offers women a peek as his pot of gold.

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