Past Purges
Agent Carter "Pilot;Bridge and Tunnel"
I'm digging how super stylized the show is. Maybe they play up how super-humanly effective Agent Carter is a bit much, but who cares? It's Marvel. I forgot how good Hayley Atwell is at this. Lyndsy Fonseca fits into here really well too. Hopefully, they find some different ways to use the men in Peggy's office beyond 'Chauvinist #2', because most of the actors could have utility here. This'll do as a stop-gap to get to Agents of SHIELD.
New Girl "Shark"
I spent the entire episode trying to figure out why Zoe Lister Jones looked so familiar. I can't imagine it's all from that episode or two I watched of Whitney. Who knows? It was nice to see Nasim Pedrad somewhere other than Mulaney because it reminded me that I like Nasim Pedrad. Ryan sure seems to be meshing quickly and well, or at least is accepting of his role as a prop for Jess. Considering that there are no long term plans for him, that's just fine.
The Mindy Project "Stanford"
I've very curious what this Stanford fellowship will look like. Mindy is the lifeblood of this series, so if she's legitimately away from the rest of the cast for a while, that severely hurts it. I can do with this as a distraction for a couple of weeks, especially if Danny's still around. In fact, with the two leads on the other coast like that, it was strange following the rest of the cast. It was like building a Lego set from the leftover pieces after making a really cool castle: you can still do something else cool, but it'll never be as good.
In regards to Julia Stiles, I've never seen a show that has so little concern with maximizing the use of guest stars.
Cougar Town "American Dream Plan B"
Maybe they won't be spending the entire season building up to Laurie giving birth after all. That would be amazing. First Parks and Rec and now this? Is a pregnancy season no longer a sitcom trope? How exciting! I sure hope Bobby comes back soon. It was so strange having them work around him not being there.
On a side note: I didn't miss casting news that Brian van Holt wouldn't be returning, did I? I need Bobby Cobb in my Cougar Town!
The Middle "Pam Freakin' Staggs"
I loved and hated this episode. Either way, something about it only felt about half as long as normal. Let's get this out of the way, I found just about everything with Pam Staggs annoying. It wasn't Kirstie Alley's fault exactly. I don't like when I feel a coastal misunderstanding on everything in the middle U.S., and everything from the Wheel of Fortune, to winning a million dollars apparently setting you for life, to St. Louis being a big deal started to rub me the wrong way. I get how that's the joke of it, but it felt a bit too much like California writers laughing at Midwesterners rather than with.
Thankfully, a troublesome A-story was buffered by some excellent B-stories. There's Axl going after Devin Levin hard (and who could blame him?). Charlie McDermott and Gia Mantegna play off each other well and they didn't drag it on any longer than they needed to. Sue looking for an extracurricular activity is vintage Sue and is given just enough time to be funny without exhausting it. The best part of the episode has to be Mike ("I have to say Brick, you're annoying me least this week.") and Brick ("You know, you and I could just get an apartment together."). I love getting the little reminders of how similar those two actually are.
Modern Family "The Day We Almost Died"
I've been liking this season a lot so far. It's done a good job of being funny while still earning those heartfelt family moments at the end. I want to really stress that because I'm not rooting against Modern Family now the way I have at other times.
That said, I strongly disliked this episode. It was a lot of everyone being really toxic to one another, things like Mitchell skating down the street made the world seem tiny, and the near death starting point wasn't layered enough to move from repetitive to clever. Only Phil saved any of it for me with his moments of badassness, telling Gil Thorpe off in particular.
Blackish "Andre and Marseille"
I was wondering how much longer they could keep Dre's parent's apart. I loved the running gag of Marseille's fires and the Rashomon of how Dre and Bow meet.
The Big Bang Theory "The Space Probe Disintegration"
Two main stories this week and both went to dark places. Bravo Big Bang Theory. Sheldon and Leonard have a real heart to heart while the ladies are shopping that ends with Leonard being allowed to slowly move in with Penny. Considering, as they mentioned repeatedly (also, good on them), that sent Sheldon out of control a few months earlier, that's a big deal. The other half of the cast is busy with Raj worrying about his probe working. This leads to some very frank discussion about religion that I wasn't expecting. Before it could get too intense though, Raj deflects by unloading on the poor old man who nicked Raj's car with his door. They can't do an episode like this every week, but this was a nice change.
A to Z "K is for Keep Out"
Andrew and Zelda have some exceptionally bad communication skills. That's been so consistent between them that I can't even blame this week on the writing forcing them to act stupid. They just don't communicate. No wonder they break up. I do have to say, Big Bird and Lora's bonding was very sweet. Sweeter than I expected it would be.
Parenthood "How Did We Get Here?"
Well, the holidays sure killed some of the momentum this episode relied on. A lot of puzzle pieces moving into place for whatever the finale has planned. Julia and Joel are back together (?). Hank proposing to Sarah after realizing that he wants to be a part of this. Adam and Crosby have a fortuitous break-in and incredibly swift insurance estimate that's leading to a rift in which way they want to go with the Luncheonette. Amber's still pregnant. Zeek and Camille are preparing for the worst. I sure hope they don't force the show to zig when we expect it to zag just to surprise us. I'm getting tire of 'clever' beating out 'satisfying' in regard to finales.
Archer "The Holdout'
God dammit! I'm doing it again. No more watching Archer as that last show before I decide to go to bed. It was a solid premiere. Reset things well and Cheryl's prank on Malory was delightfully cruel. We'll see how things play out now that we are back to status quo.
Girl Meets World "Girl Meets Game Night"
How can I put this? That was a better written episode than I ever expected from this show. The parallel between family game night and Corey's lesson from earlier in the day was handled well. I liked the recurring joke of Topanga saying "I win" whenever she heard the bell. There's the meta jokes like "Your school is the father of my school." - "I'm also going to be teaching you next year." that I got a kick out of. Or "He's 5 and has already been married for 20 years." - "He gets that from me." Even tying the diplomatic relations stuff back to John Quincy Adams was a good touch. All around a solid episode.
Brooklyn Nine Nine "Payback"
I didn't get to focus on this the way I'd like, so let's just call it another good, not great episode that played a little weirdly because of the weird act breaks.
Girls "Iowa"
For about 2 seconds I actually wondered if I accidentally started the Pilot episode rather than the season premiere. That parallel was undeniable and effective. Hannah was appropriately shitty to her parents and used this as a kind of victorious rebuttal to them cutting her off at the beginning of the series. Everyone else is in a bad place. Marnie is having an affair with her performing partner. Shosh graduated, but not in the way she dreamed, with her parents bickering over where the diploma is being sent. Jessa is avoiding legal action over her assisted suicide attempt (I hope that's not all we see of Natasha Lyonne). Adam is finding commercial work unsatisfying (big surprise). Ray just looks like a hot mess. So, a lot of things have been set in place. The best moment had to be Marnie showing up early to help Hannah leave. We need that reminder that they're best friends occasionally.
Looking "Looking for the Promised Land"
It's been a while since I watched this so I forgot a lot that was going on. Thankfully, the episode begins by limiting us to Patrick, Augustin, and Dom by themselves. Dom is still with Lynn (I wonder if Scott Bakula gets money for them using his picture but not having him in the episode?) and the other two are still single. The forest party was fun. I'm kind of curious if something like that is one of those fantasy parties that only exist in TV or if that does exist in some places. Regardless, a lot of hookups happening and all three kick of new directions for the season: Augustin finds a new guy with a house in Virginia (Loved Patrick's response to that), Patrick is hooking up with a guy already in a relationship, and Dom is hooking up outside of his (I don't get a sense if that's something Lynn would be cool with. Probably not).
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