Past Purges
The Big Bang Theory "The Expedition Approximation"
This is a case of just being happy they did it at all. One of my biggest complaints about Big Bang is that whenever there's a real moment between two characters, the sell it out for one more laugh. They did it again with Sheldon and Raj as Sheldon opens up about his concerns that he's no longer relevant and Raj reflects on his move from India to the US. The moment ends abruptly when Sheldon becomes panicked by a rat. I'm ok with that though, because it was a gut reaction of Sheldon's, being afraid of rats, that killed the moment, not a "Kick Me" sign. It ended abruptly, but nothing reductive was done to the previous conversation.
Penny's new job has excited the writers. It's opened up so much more that they can do. The money argument is a good one for them to have, since Leonard has always been the one with more of it. They found the simplest resolution they could. Howard and Bernadette, not so much. That was handled all for the jokes. It's nothing new to us that she's exceptionally better off than he is, so I wasn't surprised that they didn't really resolve it now.
Gotham "Viper"
Remember Agents of SHIELD's first season, about this time? It was attempting to do a villain of the week by creating odd characters who all looked like cousins of known villains from the comics. The team was still coming together and looked like templates more than fully realized people. There were hints of larger stories at play, which could be interesting if they could just figure out how to use them without getting in the way of the larger stories from the comics that they were servicing.
Sound familiar?
Gotham is having a rough go at figuring itself out. The case of the week format sounds good on paper but isn't working too well. The villains have either been lame or more campy than the rest of the show they are doing. The more they could move into going against Fish, Falcone, and the Penguin the better. The Viper stuff was fun in a bizarre kind of way. It's another case of feeling like I'd be getting a lot more out of the references and investigation if I read more of the comics. That's getting a little old.
Scorpion "Plutonium is Forever"
Whatever. None of Walter's former protege's plan made sense, but this isn't a show where it has to. I think that Robert Patrick washing up on the beach with the girls in bikinis sums up how seriously I need to take this. I'd like a bit more silliness on a per episode basis. That's for sure. Scorpion takes itself far too seriously most of the time and it's never going to function best as that kind of show.
Selfie "Nugget of Wisdom"
Here's what we have with the Selfie cast, and I'll put it in basketball terms since that's where my head's at right now. You have two stars that they are building around. One (John Cho) is a seasoned talent who is still looking for a place to shine. The other (Karen Gillan) is playing out of position [as an American], but has enough potential to still shine anyway. There's one veteran (David Harewood) who is probably better than this, but a paycheck's a paycheck. Pretty much everyone else is bit players who are getting more time than they would otherwise, because there's no one else to do it (Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Brian Huskey, Allyn Rachel, Sam Levine). I don't begrudge the cast. I just wish that it felt like they planned it more than two deep.
Eliza shows some actual signs of growth this week and the kid was enjoyable to have around. I'm still looking for something to grab hold to on this show.
Agents of SHIELD "A Hen in the Wolf House"
So we have Coulson, May, Skye, Fitz, and Simmons (yay!) forming the core of the team. Triplett and Ward are probably in for the long haul. Lance, Mac, and Bobbi Morse are nominally on the team but I question how long any of them will last. That's a very full team and we could probably do without too many more guest stars for a while. I like that SHIELD is feeling like a real organization rather than a very small group, but TV logistics are making this a bit tough. How many of these characters am I supposed to care about? Regardless, another fun week and this show has fallen into a good rhythm.
Arrow "Carto Maltese"
The goal of Arrow at this point appears to be "let's make everyone a superhero". Laurel is trying to be a badass, taking on a cartoonishly vile abusive boyfriend of someone in her AA group. And, she's about to start training. I predict she'll be fighting along side Oliver by February sweeps at the latest. Thea is a trained badass after an extended Assassin's Rumspringa. They're gonna need all of them in fighting form though. After all, they are pretty clearly setting up a throw down with Superman.
The Middle "The Table"
For how much Jimmy Kimmel was mentioned in the advertising of this episode, that cameo was weak. The Middle isn't much of a show for that anyway. It's more of a forgotten hit than a name getter. I was oddly pleased to see Axl's old roommate return. I hope that they've consistently used the same actor for the role, because I like to think that someone is collecting royalties down the line for having his back to the camera for the entirety of his role in primetime. Frankie and Mike's entire handling of the table situation (a classic Heck mix-up) was sweet in their own way. What else would you expect for their twenty something-nth anniversary?
Modern Family "Won't You Be Our Neighbor"
Tyne Daly was excellent as Mrs. Plank. Adding 'buffoon' as word of the day then adding the 's'. What is the object of this sentence? "I think the object of this sentence is to humiliate us." That was great, especially with Lily realizing how useless the other teacher is. I have to believe there was a draft of this where Sharon Gless was the other teacher. That's not a crazy thought for me to have, right?
Black-ish "Crime and Punishment"
Spanking is a tricky topic because it's very much like what happens at Dre's work. A lot of people are abstractly fine with it but once it becomes real, it's abhorrent. Because of that, I knew that Jack was not getting spanked. I love the way they got around it, making Dre's disappointment hurt even more, and Pops' response ("I told you to spank him, not crush his spirit.") made it even better. Impressive handling of a taboo topic.
A to Z "D is for Debbie"
Most of the episode was a little tone deaf. It was all worth it for Zelda breaking into lawyer mode for the eulogy though. I think that jokes like that will be the show's strength if it lasts long enough. That ending, on the other hand, was one big tease. The entire closing tag is someone singing yet at no point is that person Cristin Milioti? Really?
Parenthood "The Scale of Affection is Fluid"
Final seasons are tough. They need to have a season's worth of stories, but anytime something new happens, I worry about it they have enough time to tell that story. They didn't try to overstuff the episode, so no Sarah and Hank this week. Crosby is going through some sort of self-destructive streak and seeing Zeek's fragility didn't help matters as I thought it would. I kind of like that even though his life is together on paper, he's still the screw up in the family. Joel and Julia's situation was well handled this week, dealing with the fall-out of the kids meeting Julia's new man. It's still frustrating because I want them to get back together, but that frustration is by design. Amber is dealing with the frustration of dating in her current situation. Mae Whittman sad is always effective, but I was a little irritated by her bull-headedness about the situation. Of course the dude is going to be freaked out by that. (Sidenote: what are the odds that puppy app somehow turns back up?). Finally, there's Max. Adam and Kristina both trying to protect him in their own way is often sweet and heartbreaking at the same time. It's hard not to root for him. He had enough down beats last season. Let's give the boy a win and let him get the girl, in some way or another.
Saturday Night Live "Jim Carrey/Iggy Azelia"
Occasionally, I get the feeling that the host comes in with a lot of ideas for sketches and the cast and crew play into those ideas the best that they can. This is one of those weeks. How else do you explain Hellvis? The Carrey family reunion is the epitome of "Ok, let's get it out of your system so we can move on" since everyone has a Jim Carrey impression. It was a nice, strange little episode.
The Walking Dead "Four Walls and a Room"
I spent the weekend watching the first two and a half seasons of The Walking Dead and have come to appreciate how much the show has accepted what it does well and avoided or tweaked the rest. Bob's fairwell is a great example of that. You know, he got one. He was actually a developed and I can miss him not being around, as opposed to someone like T-Dawg who was never anyone. Frankly, I'm impressed with how well the show has whittled down the cast to the characters that work. There's not a single death that was a detriment to the show. Any character who is killed of was a problem or had nothing interesting left. While I like Bob, I'm not sure there was much more to do with him.
The end of the Terminus folks was a cool scene, but an indescribably stupid move on their part. Between how completely they were overrun by walkers (with Carol's help) and how badly they botched the plan at the church, it's amazing they lasted as long as they did and I feel silly for thinking they were ever a threat. Honestly, I would've had more fun seeing how the tainted meat scenario played out. That was one of the show's best openers.
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