The Middle "From Orson with Love"
God bless Patricia Heaton. She is so good at making the viewer so uncomfortable for her as she does things like leaving messages on answering machines, or this week, getting pictures from Sue's slumber party. Hint: If Sue is the level-headed one, you're doing something wrong. As for Axl and Brick, that just made me happy. Their whole B-story was stupid and charming, then the resolution was a sweet way to recognize their brotherly-bond without getting too caught up in it.
Modern Family "Career Day"
AHHH!!! I'm done! I'm done! I'm done!
Don't take that to mean I'm done watching the show. It's still barely good enough, buttressed by it's continued popularity, means I won't be dropping it. But sweet Jesus, that closing tag irritated me. It's like I say about Big Bang all the time. They can't help themselves. They spend the whole episode making the point that Claire is looking for something more to do and like feeling valued professionally, then, they undo it all for one little punchline about Gil Thorpe being a jerk. Yeah, I'm overreacting. Odds are they will get back to Claire's larger story in future episodes. But, frankly, I have a short fuse for this show these days, so even these small cop-out frustrate me considerably.
I think this week, I will be awarding the Nolan Gould Stealth MVP award to Sarah Hyland. They still don't know entirely what to do with her, but she seems game for anything and Haley got to show some cunning with the Santa Claus trick.
Nashville "Take These Chains from my Heart"
A lot of things I can choose to ignore here. Gay cowboy. Whatever. I called it earlier in the episode. Hardly interesting unless it turns out that Gunnar is too. Juliette's sponsor/manager/boyfriend going from saint to lying, cheating, drug-planting, money-stealing jerk in the matter of 2-3 episodes is plain shitty writing. Avery's making amends tour. Well, I do like him slightly more. But improving from a 0 to a 1 is still not worth much. Oh, and he's sucking Scarlett back in. No thanks. Some other stuff happened. The finale should be coming up soon. Then I'll have enough completeness to drop the show. It can't pull me back in. Not possible.
The Americans "The Colonel"
Maybe I was focusing too much on drinking Vodka while watching the finale, but I was genuinely confused about the two different meet-ups. I assumed the CIA was watching Elizabeth's meet-up. Was the audience supposed to already know that from the beginning? As I said, too much Vodka.
Beyond that though, this was a good episode, even if it didn't set up a lot to hold me over until next year. It felt very un-finale-like. One touch that I really loved was having it end with Paige examining the laundry but not finding anything. That showed such restraint by the writing staff and tells us all we need to go moving forward about where that could go.
The Big Bang Theory "The Proton Resurgence"
Bob Newhart is a legend and it's easy to see why. I get that the whole A-story was written to fit around him and not the other way around, so it's natural that he would get the biggest laughs, but frankly, his delivery changed the whole rhythm of the show. He got laughs out of lines that no one in the regular cast could get. Jim Parsons is well on his way to being a comedy icon. Newhart is one. The difference has never been starker.
As for the rest of the episode, up to and including the fact that 90% of Penny's scenes were he holding back a smile from what Newhart said: meh.
Community "Heroic Origins"
Look. Nothing impresses me more than to see a long-term plan executed well. In a pinch, I'll settle on retroactively making it seem that way as long as it seems plausible. It's what I fell in love with about the early days of How I Met Your Mother. What I don't like is when it feels forced. This, felt forced and contrived. While I'm sure that Abed would want to find an origin, it is implausible that he would succeed. I'd be way more interested in something like retelling the first day of class leading up to the pilot to see how lucky they were to come together rather than creating this frozen yogurt, mall explanation. The one good thing of it all is that it more or less saved part of the Chang problem.
The Office "Livin' the Dream"
Stupid DVR messed up, so I didn't get to see this episode for a couple days and kept hearing good things about it, which, frankly, I didn't believe. As it turns out, this was one of the least bad episodes in a while.
-I'm not sure if I believe Angela and Oscar would have anything to do with each other at this point, but accepting that, his offer to her at the end is sweet and fairly touching.
-I don't think you'll ever convince me that Pam would've been so against leaving Scranton given her dreams of bigger things in earlier seasons, but that's what they claim and we are in this world or Pam and Jim relationship problems, so it was nice (and awkward) to see them trying so hard to make it work.
-Two surprising positives for Dwight. 1) Sensei Imperioli wasn't making fun of Dwight. He genuinely respects his quirks and treated the whole black belt ceremony with a surprising amount of respect (as opposed to shitting on him, which is what I expected). 2) He gets another shot at being manager. Given that they've moved past Jim being the man for the job, Dwight is the natural fit.
-Kevin wasn't brain-dead. When was the last time that happened?
-The reason I said it "not bad" instead of "good" is because of Andy. I'm still baffled at how the show wrecked that character. Michael Scott-lite is even a generous moniker since his return. I'm so disinterested in his character (and let me be clear, I like Ed Helms a lot), that everything about him in the episode annoyed me.
Parks and Recreation "Are You Better Off?"
Impressive. The P&R team figured out the best way to do a clip show: they didn't. This was clearly a "season in review" episode but filled with new jokes, the return of guest starts, and different perspectives on previous episodes. And that's just in the A-story. Andy's hunt for the pregnant cast member was a little more "sweeps week" than I'm accustomed to seeing on P&R. It was still funny and surprising though as well as a great way to catch up on numerous characters leading up to the summer hiatus. This wasn't my favorite episode of the season, but it was yet another strong finale for the show (I also like that they went into this one a lot more confident that they'd be renewed and it showed in the open-endedness of most characters' stories).
Hannibal "Entree"
I don't remember the last show I watched that was as balanced between serial and procedural (I assume I'm forgetting several though). Normally a show leans heavy one way or the other (SVU and Braking Bad being two good counterpoints). This clearly has a case of the week feel, but it is also definitely leading to a bigger story. It's nice. I know why more shows don't do it like this, but it works well for this one.
Happy Endings "Deuce Babylove 2: Electric Babydeuce"
I hate the doubling up on episodes. I can barely remember the differences, especially since it's on Friday and I don't write anything about them till at least the next day. Oh well. Megan Mullally is always welcome on my TV no matter what the scenario. This episode had two of my favorite pairings in Max and Alex and Penny and Dave, so I couldn't complain.
Happy Endings "Brothas and Sistas"
They always end with a wedding, don't they. I suppose it's fitting since it began with a wedding and all. I get the sense that the writers don't know where the stand with Alex and Dave though. Obviously, they were difficult to deal with in the first season and even the second season there was a weird uncertainty. I actually liked them dating this season a lot. Assuming there will be a season 4, I do think this breakup is a good thing. First of all, it is done on equal terms, the lack of which hampered a lot of season 1. Secondly, Max and Penny had a tendency to feel out of place a lot with the others coupled off, so I think this will allow for more freedom in the plots going forward. My only fear is that Alex works well on her own always, but Dave is more problematic on his own. Hopefully they've figured him out more by now (which I think they have).
Mad Men "For Immediate Release"
I'm not used to this much happening on an episode of Mad Men, and that goes double for a non-finale. I don't know where to begin. Pete's a jerk, but what he has to say isn't without merit. Mostly, he's the only one who seems to acknowledge his flaws. Joan had one helluva scene telling off Don. Speaking of Don, it was nice to see him back in the game and smiling again. I started to think he'd lost his touch. I like that a plan of Roger's finally paid off. Peggy continues to be fun as she dreams of being part of the counter-culture but realizes that she's more comfortable as part of "the establishment". I'm going to stop there, because I feel like I could go on for pages about this episode.
How I Met Your Mother "Something Old"
You much be kidding. They are not going down the Robin/Ted road again are they? Are they? Please, tell me that I'm reading in to the look at the end and it's really just them exchanging a friendly glance upon the realization that they are just friends. This episode was perfectly harmless before that. They've called my bluff too many times for me to threaten to stop watching, so instead, I will say this: why are they doing this to us? Let it die!
New Girl "Winston's Birthday"
Poor Winston. Even the writers know they have no idea what to do with him. Still, he had some of the funniest gags, most notably the Eddie Murphy suit. I liked Jess possibly getting a teaching job again. It's clearly what she's best at. The Schmidt "Un-douchifying Tour" continues to chug along and it's a pleasant side of him. Nick and Jess's dad was funny throughout, even through I think him telling her dad was more of a sit-com contrivance than what would actually happen. I'm not sure what Cece's place is moving forward if this wedding goes through, but hasn't that always been the case with her. She's not the best with the physical comedy, so this week was a bit of a misfire for me.
The Mindy Project "Frat Party"
This show isn't "there" yet. It has a lead with a clearly defined voice: Mindy. It has primary characters that can carry a B-sotry easily: Danny and Jeremy. It has regulars who work well as scene-stealers when needed: Betsy, Morgan, and Beverly. It has done a really good job of filling the world with recurring characters that can be used whenever: the Midwives, Gwen, Casey, to name a few. Also, no show has had as many one liners that I've enjoyed this season. I think consistency is the only things it's missing. This episode is a good example of it knowing some of it's strengths: opening tags with Mindy and a love interest are always funny and Mindy thrown into youth culture is a constant delight. Nothing hit hard though and there wasn't a lot of balance to it. I don't know. I really like this show, but I'm hasn't been able to move to the "love it" level yet.
The Point of the Purge
Past Purges:
4/4-4/7 4/8-4/9 4/10-4/16 4/17-4/21 4/22-4/30
3/13-3/15 3/16-3/19 3/20-3/26 3/27-3/31 4/1-4/3
2/22-2/26 2/27 2/28-3/3 3/4-3/7 3/8-3/12
2/5-2/8 2/9-2/11 2/12-2/18 2/19-2/20 2/21
1/17-1/18 1/19-1/21 1/22-1/23 1/24-1/29 1/30-2/4
12/16 12/17-12/21 ...12/22-1/7 1/8-1/9 1/10-1/16
11/25-11/28 11/29-11/30 12/1-12/5 12/6-12/8 12/9-12/15
10/28-11/3 11/4-11/10 11/11-11/16 11/17-11/20 11/21-11/24
9/22-9/28 9/29-10/4 10/6-10/12 10/13-10/19 10/20-10/27
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