Past Purges
The Middle "The 100th"
I won't call it the glorious return of Boss Co. but it was a return and it was entertaining. For a 100th episode. This was rather tame, which I'm ok with. Sometimes 100 episodes is just 100 episodes. Maybe it is my fear of living in a small town creeping in, but I found the story of how they came to live in Orson instead of Chicago very depressing. I feel for Brick though. That old-timey Fire truck would've been awesome to ride on.
Back in the Game "She. Could. Go. All. The. Way!"
It's nice to see Dick doing something with another character for a change. Obviously, for this show to work in the long term, it has to develop characters beyond their interactions with Terry. I kind of want to check the production order of the episodes because last week's certainly ended with a plot development for the baseball team that I'm otherwise surprised they didn't bring up. By the way, my laugh of the night came from this
CANNON: You two will be the patsies.
TWINS: What's a patsy.
CANNON: You'll be perfect.
Modern Family "The Help"
Second week in a row that Lilly got one of my biggest laughs, this time with the reaction shots in the end tag. Cam and Mitchell are on a united front this week, which I like. It would be nice if they could tone down the broadness of the gay jokes but I'll take what I can get. I love Manny's "Am I being replaced" line and little else about the manny plot. I like Adam DeVine but in small and carefully handled does. I will never say "No" to more Peri Gilpin in my life. The story surrounding her was a little "meh". Nothing egregious though beyond getting very little use out of having Fred Willard around.
The Big Bang Theory "The Romance Resonance"
Much like last week's episode existed for the Raiders of the Lost Ark revelation, this week existed because someone wanted to have them sing a song. It was a sweet and catchy song and I have no issue with it. I'm just enjoying how easily you can see the mechanics of the show after this many seasons. Did anyone else get the sense that the writers lost their patience to write an episode for Valentine's Day and went ahead and made this one now?
The Crazy Ones "She's So European"
I didn't like this episode. I'm not certain if this is a qualitative or subjective judgment. Pretty much everything about the European lady (not even looking up the name) rubbed me the wrong way: Simon and Zach competing for her, Sydney wanting to seem cool to her, the father daughter sex awkwardness. All of it did nothing for me. I'm not sounding the alarms or anything. All shows have episodes I don't like, especially early on so I'll just ignore this and think about how soon before they can get Kelly Clarkson back on. She's so nice.
The Michael J Fox Show "Teammates"
Eve's story is a standard sitcom trope that I could do without. The resolution worked out well though with her being able to go to the concert (instead of the "Dad knows best" story I feared we were getting) and they got a dog which is something I ALWAYS approve of. Mike and Annie's fight is a pretty common one in a sitcom although again, I was pleased with the tweak to the formula so that it isn't a case in which there is a right and wrong party, instead opting for a "we each have complimentary strengths" compromise. Oh, and very little of the office as a setting which I approve of.
Parenthood "Let's Be Mad Together"
I quite enjoyed Kristina's back and forth about Max's situation and thought it did a great job of fully articulating all the sides of the issue, then ended it in a fitting place. I'm glad that Sarah's worries about Ryan are not going away after one episode. I feel like Joel and Julia are in a constant struggle to balance their relationship and I can't tell if I like it or am exhausting of it. Crosby and drunk Joel is a pairing I want to see more of. That's for sure. I'm a little annoyed that Adam's response to Kristina's crazy decision to run for mayor is to do something similarly crazy by starting his own label, just as the studio seems to be stabilizing finally.
SNL "Edward Norton/That singer whose I can't remember"
There was a strange moment during monologue, after Miley (I am so tired of her) plugged her new tour and Alec Baldwin plugged his new show when I asked myself, "why is Ed Norton here?" I know there doesn't always have to be a reason for when someone hosts. A lot of it is due to availability and willingness. He also pointed out this is his first time hosting and he's been holding off for 13 years. This all strikes me as nearly as odd as Bruce Willis hosting the episode before. He did a fine job and Nasim Pedrad finally got a little something to do (as did Jay Pharaoh in a bit of a tonally miscalculated sketch).
The Walking Dead "Isolation"
Did I miss the part where we as an audience find out how Rick knew Carol killed those people? If so, my bad. If not, I hope they do go over that. Now, normally I would talk about how I liked the episodes and all the character development was great or that I enjoyed Carl and Hershel's scenes together or even how worried I was when I realized Darryl was in a car with virtually every black person one the show (historically, an unsafe position to be in). Instead, I'm going to have to complain about how my fucking DVR cut off that last 30 seconds of the episode. You know the big reveal about Carol. The thing is, I was watching it live, so you can't even fault me there. Get your act together Time Warner and whoever gets show runtimes for them. On the plus side, if it happened to me, I'm sure it happened to many others and I doubt AMC will let that happen ever again.
HIMYM "No Questions Asked"
The other day, I had a really big dinner with a lot of courses: beets, carrots, broccoli, green beans, asparagus, but the only thing I was really excited for was the steak. I wanted to end the meal on a high note, so I forced myself to eat a little bit of the carrots, a little broccoli, systematically going through everything else until all that was left was the steak. The problem is, at that point I was full on all the things I didn't like. The steak tasted fine, I guess, but it didn't matter if it was the best steak I've ever had (which, let's face it, it wasn't). All the crap I went through to get to it ruined even the thing I like. I feel like Carter Bays and Craig Thomas have been saving the steak way too long and boy am I getting tired of the Farhampton Inn green beans.
Trophy Wife "Halloween"
Did they just sneak in two Halloween episodes the past two weeks? That's ambitious. I found the outright split between the two stories nice. The Kate/Jackie pairing was a new one and one I approve of. I especially enjoyed Jackie's complete lack of pop-culture awareness.
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