DVR Purge: 2/2-2/9

Ahhhh, I passed the week mark. Woe as me. What ever will I do?
Sarcasm aside, I don't like going over the week mark because that means I can't keep up with everything I'm watching. If I can't keep up, I should cut back. I don't want to cut back. You see where I'm going here. Whatever. Here you go.

Past Purges 
 

Gotham "The Fearsome Dr. Crane"
Ooooooh, now I get it. We aren't dealing with humans. That's not what we're watching on this show. We are watching characters from a comic book. No matter how much, at times, they shoot this to look real, it's a comic. Gordon's courtship of Dr. Thompkins isn't clunky talk about lipstick. It's panels from a page come to life. The medical examiner getting caught with the body parts isn't over the top. It's a perfect frame job shown a frame at a time. How else does that final scene with Fish running at the other guy work? I'm embarrassed that it took me this long to figure it out.

Parks & Recreation "Donna and Joe"
I like where things are going. Leslie has moved beyond the desire for political office. Ben gets a second chance at public office. Tom's relationship is going well. Donna's married. Garry gets to finally be called by his real name. April is the best Matron of Honor ever (or at least for Donna). Rachel Dratch shows up. All good things.

Agent Carter "The Iron Ceiling"
Peggy finally gets to prove her worth to the men in her job and she has a blast doing so. Thompson gets to be a character more than he was previously, although it still fits neatly into "roles you expect Chad Michael Murray to play". It looks like things are going to go down next week and I'm very excited for that.

New Girl "Swuit"
Nick and Schmidt trying to argue with each other but still agreeing to talk to each other and have a conversation before going to bed like always is pretty adorable. I like that the show tried to give Winston, Coach, and Cece a story (in another classic Winston and Coach messaround) although I didn't love what they chose.

The Mindy Project "No More Mr. Noishe Guy"
Big episode! I tracked the episode count. I guess this would be the first episode written after a back nine was picked up. I don't know if that's how the season was produced but it would make a lot of sense with all the narrative turns. Mindy wants to move to San Franscisco. Peter is moving to Austin. Danny bought a brownstone. Oh, and Mindy is pregnant!?!? I'm gonna need a minute.

Cougar Town "Even the Losers"
I wonder what things my mom has supported due to "mom goggles".

Arrow "Uprising"
Aaaaaaaaand, he's back. That didn't last long. It's probably for the best. The rest of the crew was pretty scattered. That was a pretty big episode for midseason, what with the battle of the Glades and all. Should I be preparing myself for super villain Brandon Routh soon?

Fresh Off the Boat "Pilot" & "Home Sweet Home School"
I am immediately on board*. This show already has a clear, strong, and distinct voice. Being only a little younger than Eddie in 1995, it's immediately hooked me with nostalgia. More importantly, these characters are all great. Constance Wu impressed me right away. I don't remember seeing her in anything before, but she jumps out of this. There's hints of Jane Kazmerik from Malcolm in the Middle in what she does that makes just about everything she says (or everyone she hits with her car) funny. I'm still waiting to love Randall Park as the dad, but I've seen him in enough things before to know it's a matter of "when" not "if". Eddie is funny so far with his hip-hop swagger, but I could easily see him falling back to being the narrator yet not the lead. I'm still working on figuring out the brothers. They just need time to distinguish themselves.
One thing that immediately impressed me in the pilot is that the parents took Eddie's side when he got in the fight. And, it wasn't that thing where the parents defend him in front of others but scold him later. They appreciate him sticking up for himself. I have a very good feeling about this show. Good job, ABC!
*Not an intended pun.

Modern Family "Rash Decisions"
I liked the stories that got time, especially Mitchell doing the dirty work for Claire to save her from being hated in the office (and because he loves that stuff) or Luke telling Phil that he wasn't entirely ready to be a rebellious teen yet. No, my issue this week is that there were too many plates spinning. Did we even get a resolution to Alex's interview? Why was Haley being so awful? Those two normally don't get along but this was worse than usual. I also didn't get how much Cam loved having Stella. I gets that's what they wanted me to think, but it felt like "telling" not "showing. It was a good episode, just a bit too busy.

The Americans "Baggage"
That was brutal seeing Phillip and Elizabeth breaking Annalise's body to fit in the suitcase, but somehow not as brutal as Stan desperately looking for a connection with a loved one (leaving the message for his son, visiting his estranged wife) after Oleg nearly dropped him. I'm glad to see Nina is still around. That we still are following her in that prison leads me to wonder what to expect from her for the rest of the season. How long before she gets out and what will her role be?

The Big Bang Theory "The Troll Manifestation"
Three episodes into the new year and we haven't had an episode that really feels like a group episode. This one is neatly divided between the genders. The girls are rotating between embarrassing activities of their's that are on record (Penny's movie, Bernadette's pageant, and Amy's fan fiction). The guys track down a troll, leading to a Stephen Hawking cameo. Surely it's just a coincidence that The Theory of Everything is in theaters now and Oscar voting is still open.

Girl Meets World "Gilr Meets Farkle's Choice"
I'm not convinced of a lot of things in this week's episode.
1. That  there's any chance Riley and Maya would fight over Farkle
2. That A top hat is a fashion choice that anyone, even Sabrina Carpenter should be making.
3. That Canada is really the US's greatest ally. They strike me more like that roommate you bring along with you to a party because he's already with you when you decide to leave the house.
4. That Lucas can conveniently disappear for an episode when Riley and Maya need to fight over Farkle.
5. That those two bullies didn't watch clips of Frank Stecchino and Joey the Rat in preparation for this episode.
6. That Ava Morgen Stern won't need massive therapy by the time she's an adult.

Mulaney "Ruby"
At this point I'm playing a game where I guess if the episode Fox is airing is from the originally produced set from last year or the batch being made when production was halted. I'm going with "original set" for this one.

Brooklyn Nine Nine "Windbreaker City"
Like the franchise itself, Brooklyn Nine Nine forces me to ask how much Die Hard is too much. And, like the Die Hard franchise (I've seen every installment), I still watching. This was a lesser "Tactical Village" but still quite entertaining. There was a surprisingly limited use of Eva Longoria as a guest star. I like it. It's just strange. Normally shows use a guest as much as possible while they have them.
Line of the week: "Rules are rules. I'm a badass, not an anarchist."

Better Call Saul "Uno"
Maybe Saul can lead a show after all. I was thoroughly engaged for this hour and it really did feel like a Saul origins story rather than Breaking Bad fan fiction. It's going to be a while before I am able to look at this as its own thing, but the writers are having fun with that, doing things like only having a single scene with Mike, knowing we want more. This is an exciting beginning.

The Walking Dead "What Happened and What's Going On"
I'm going to miss Tyrese.
It's interesting seeing who gets killed off. Tyrese, for example, was beloved but not untouchable. I liked elements of his delusions but they did become a bit much by the end.

Girls "Cubbies"
Oh good lord. Hannah's "apology" letter. I want to complain about the predictable machinations of TV, but that really is how I imagine things would turn out if Hannah enrolled in an MFA program. Now on to Gillian Jacobs. Yay!

Looking "Looking Down the Road"
I was sad to see Dom and Lynn split up, as they were a nice, calm, stabilizing couple for the show (for, like, 3 episodes). I'm curious to see how Agustin at the new job will go. It strikes me as a position he's taking to try to force betterment in himself rather than letting it happen, so I could see this blowing up in his face. Speaking of things blowing up. Oh, Patrick. I just want you to be happy. Please get your shit together and go after someone who is actually available.

Gotham "The Scarecrow"
Ok, I'm just going to embrace all the origins. Bring on Batman, as I thought was going to happen with Bruce this week when he fell down the hole. Bring on the Scarecrow. I only figured out that's the character they were creating with the guy's son based on the episode title. Bring on Robin. I don't remember if they specifically mentioned the flying Graysons, but when there's mention of a circus, I assumed there's trapeze. I'm not sure I understand how Fish was able to take over that group, but I do believe that she'd find a way to do so. I have to wonder what the end is going to be for this mob war.

Better Call Saul "Mijo"
They are certainly more concerned with making Jimmy appear sympathetic but on a smaller scale than Walter White, who needed a big setback to justify his big change. Jimmy looks to be a much different kind of slow burn. For him, it's battling his descent into Saul Goodman. He has "Slippin' Jimmy" in him and that's going to get him into trouble. He didn't have to save the twins though. He chose to. He seems determined to do a good job as a public defender. He turns down Nacho's original office. He's trying to be good. Better Call Saul looks to be a story about how you can't fight who you really are.

DVR Purge: 1/26-2/1

Goodbye Parenthood. Hello The Americans.

Past Purges 

Gotham "Welcome Back, Jim Gordon"
One begins to wonder how violent this series would be if it was on premium (or even basic) cable. Every moment with Fish and Penguin (Oooooooh, now I get it) feels like it should end in a gunfight, which in fact, did happen this week.
-I wonder what the significance of this Nygma story is. I'm rooting for him with Ms. Kringle. The short-sighted move would be to have him shunned quickly and stew for 15-20 years with Riddler rage. The long sighted one would be for it to go well, the audience knowing something has to go wrong, but not what or when.
-Poor Bruce, being lied to by Selina Kyle. I could do without that bit of drama, but whatever.
-Gordon is a man on a mission. I feel the show slipping away from him as the de facto lead. He's more like a lead among equals now.

Park & Recreation "Gryzzlebox/Save JJs"
Ron, standing at Leslie and Ben's doorstep, Gryzzl drone in one hand, a shotgun in the other. That is the only image I need for the next week.
The two episodes each week keep pairing together well enough that I nearly don't mind the burn off treatment. These two are balanced all around in the story-telling, ending some plots (getting the Sweetums land for the park, Tom pining over Lucy), continues others (April looking for a new job, Donna's wedding prep), and begins one or two (actually building this national park). I can't wait to see what next Tuesday brings.

Agent Carter "The Blitzkrieg Button"
A lot of Howard Stark this week. Perhaps I'm still too much in an Agent of SHIELD mindset, but I keep waiting for something big to happen.

Cougar Town "Waiting for Tonight"
Who is Bonnie? Did I miss her introduction last week? I assumed the ensemble was large enough to not need to a replacement or filler person, especially in the last run of episodes.

Arrow "Midnight City"
I don't think I'm going keep it together when Quentin finally learns the truth about Sara.

The Americans "EST Men"
This season didn't start with a bang the way last season did, but there's still plenty of good stuff happening. Elizabeth and Phillip are experiencing a rift over what to do with Paige. There's Annalise gettign killed. Their old handler is back. Agent Gaad got a half look at Elizabeth. Martha is getting better with a gun. Stan tries to fake his way through the EST meeting. The only thing this was missing was Nina. I need to see more Nina. Annet Mahendru is too good to go too long without.

The Big Bang Theory "The Anxiety Optimization"
This was a fun little episode. I like when older/established sitcoms decide that it would be fun to do something for an episode. In this case, it's following Sheldon as he moves in and out of everyone's lives looking for a source of inspiration with his mental road block. It's simple and effective.

Parenthood "May God Bless and Keep You Always"
I'm not even going to attempt to cover it all. Any half-observant viewer knew Zeek was going to die, but that didn't mute the effect. It was an hour filled with touching moments and happy endings. I so glad they didn't decide to go dark with anyone's story because it wouldn't've fit the show and, dammit, I like happy endings. It was a very tidy ending and I liked the snapshots into the future at the very end. It reminded me a lot of Six Feet Under but at a much less ambitious level. I can't wait to see what Jason Katims pulls me into next.

Saturday Night Live "JK Simmons/D'Angelo"
I was hoping for more from Simmons as a host. I don't mean he did a bad job. I hoped more sketches would land with me. From the things I've read, I wasn't as big a fan of the Casablanca sketch as others were. Even teacher's snow day wasn't remarkable. Weekend Update did it the most for me with both the return of Jebediah Atkinson assaulting the Grammys and Cecily Strong as the one-note female character from a male-driven comedy.

DVR Purge: 1/22-1/25

Nothing blew me away in the past few days but just about everything had a solid outing.

Past Purges 

Backstrom "Dragon Slayer"
I don't predict that I'll be watching this again. I don't want to be negative, so let's leave it at that.

Archer "The Archer Sanction"
So...Ireland isn't an Axis power?

Parenthood "We Made It Through the Night"
I missed the precredits part of the episode thanks to some odd choices in basketball broadcasting in my area. You know, the part of the episode that sets the rest of it up? As a result, I was lost through most of the first half of it. As has been the case all season, they are still building toward that finale. The school got its goodbye this week. I feel like that was Max's final big moment. I kind of wonder if that was the functional end of the Luncheonette and Julia and Joel's dramatic arc. I mean, you don't want to over stuff the finale, right?

Saturday Night Live "Blake Shelton"
I can't tell if this week was a case of Blake Shelton being a limited performer (in this context) or simply not being available enough to do more, but it was pretty light on him. He was fine though. I'd rather move Weekend Update for a moment. I think I'm going to like Colin Jost and Michael Che as the anchors. Like any good team, they need some time to figure things out and I think they're nearly there. Their angle seems to be bringing some edge back to Weekend Update. I didn't note the exact jokes (My bad) but there were a couple times when Che or Jost didn't even seem prepared for how cutting a punchline was (his own or the other's). Jost especially takes delight in pausing for an extra beat as he revels in the audience reaction to something he said. The still have a way to go with intergrating the guests into it, but I'm optimistic.

Mulaney "Power Moves"
I still don't like this show in any traditional, figurative, objective, or surrealist sense, but this is the closest I've come to liking an episode. It might've just been the Backstreet Boys song. Who knows? RIP Mulaney.

Brooklyn Nine Nine "The Defense Rests"
While I didn't grow all that attached to her, it'll be sad to see Eva Longoria go. She fit in well. Mostly, I'm happy that the episode added a new wrinkle to Holt's rivalry with Wunch. His attempts to be childish are great, such as setting auto-correct to change her name to "butt". It's so simple, so petty, and so satisfying.

Girls "Female Author"
Let's recap:
Hannah unleashed on he entire MFA program and probably sealed her fate there.
Marnie doesn't like being someone's mistress.
Shosh turned the world's best interview into the world's worst with an effectiveness generally reserved for Hannah.
Jessa needs a friend.
Adam is being surprisingly friendly to Jessa.
Ray can't turn Marnie down forever (and who can blame him).
Elijah is great at making friends fast.
And yes, I do think that Dakota Fanning wants to be Dakota Fanning.

Looking "Looking Top to Bottom"
Patrick and Kevin's thing is going to end badly. I have a bad feeling about this. It's going too well so far. That's a bad sign. I couldn't help but notice that Ricky is still hanging around. I wonder if there's any plans for him and Augustin. I hope not, but if it's well handled, I could be swayed.

DVR Purge: 1/20-1/21

Caught up just in time for a little midweek purge, mostly necessitated because I went on way too long about this week's Parks and Rec.

Past Purges 

Parks and Recreation "William Henry Harrison; Ron and Leslie"
These two episodes were deemed so complimentary to one another that my DVR didn't even bother calling them two episodes, just a single hour block of TV. While they couldn't be more different as episodes they work together perfectly.
"William Henry Harrison" is a standard Parks and Rec. episode. The whole ensemble is in full swing. Donna and Tom are working on the Grizzyl project with Ron, more driven by victory than his principles. That gave us things like the "Somebody's Daughters Dancers" and Annabel Porter's beef milk. April and Andy are supposedly helping Leslie, but when does Leslie ever need help on a task like this? Really, they're looking for April's new job. This is the second episode (or maybe third. These blocks make it hard to remember) this season focusing on her looking for a job. I hope that means they are building to something great. I love the stealthy good pairing of Ben and Jerry Gerry Larry Terry (I give up). When was the last time Jim O'heir got to riff like he did in the car?
It is worth noting that Harrison is the first thing in a while that they've focused on as a sort of public shame that's an Indiana thing, not a made-up Pawnee thing. I don't have much else to say about that, other than it led to the "If he's worn a coat" room, so I approve of it.
That was all preamble though to the one line that matters: "You're not that good at scrapbooking." That's when you know there's a problem. The rift between Leslie and Ron has gone too far, something must be done, and that something is a bottle episode.
I'm still digesting "Ron and Leslie" but I can safely say this: I'm looking for a space for it in my top ten list. Ron and Leslie are the backbone of the series and their relationship second only to Jack and Liz's on 30 Rock. This was as lovely an episode for the two of them as I could ever hope for. The Morningstar explanation was perfectly fitting. Both characters went from blindly stubborn to similarly at fault to making up beautifully. Them cleaning the office to Woody Nelson's "Buddy" was the closest I came to tearing up since Ann and Chris left. And, the end, with them going to JJ's Diner, again bonding over a love of breakfast food is one of the best endings to an episode on a show that's pretty damn great at ending episodes.
I didn't even get to the jokes. Only two characters should be limiting, but when those two actors are Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman, it's not. Ron covered in Post It notes, Leslie revealing that she caused the temporary shut down of Food n' Stuff, Leslie making up the lyrics to "We Didn't Start the Fire (I need to see EVERY outtake of that), and of course, the claymore. Oh, and the saxophone fart. So much funny!
I am so excited to see what they have in store next for what has been so far a superb victory lap final season.

Cougar Town "To Find a Friend"
Recording problems. I assume it was filled with new baby hijinks though and, is Bobby already gone?

Arrow "Left Behind"
It's just so hard to get worked up about Oliver being dead when you know he's not. Emily Bett Rickards did a great job selling it though. I am enjoying seeing how the group tries to manage without the Arrow before he returns.

DVR Purge: 1/13-1/19

PARKS AND REC IS BACK!!!

Past Purges 

Parks and Recreation "2017;Ron and Jammy"
It's back. It's back! IT'S BACK! IT'S BACK!!! Oh, how I've missed Parks and Rec. The only downside is that I won't have it for much longer.
So far, the time jump has been a complete success. Last season's finale tied everything up so well, that the three years of off-camera character growth has given them plenty of new material.
Ron and Leslie are at odds over something called Morningstar. It makes me sad to see them as enemies, but it was always an inevitability. Ben is still happily and successfully the City Manager. Tom's Bistro is a complete success and I couldn't be happier that they are bringing back Natalie Morales (regardless of how contrived). April and Andy have become a boring married couple and are now determined to put an end to that (Lucky for the viewers!). Donna's getting married. Jerry is Terry. Craig is apparently MIA. I'll have to come up with a more effective way to cover these blocked episodes, but for now, I'll just stick with saying that this was excellent and a perfect reminder of why this is one of my all-time favorites.

New Girl "Coming Out"
The joke machine wasn't working as well as it has been other times this week. Jess and Ryan coming out as a couple ended exactly how I expected (claims of favoritism, followed by over correcting, then saying "I'm being objective, dammit"). That wasn't very dense with jokes. I didn't find Schmidt's reactions to his ulcer as funny as I was meant to. I like a lot of the stuff with Nick and Tran's granddaughter simply because the lazier Nick is, the funnier he is. I completely missed what I was supposed to enjoy about Winston and the crystal. Just 'crazy Winston' I guess. Coach being jealous of Ryan's attention was simple but effective.

The Mindy Project "San Francisco Bae"
I really want Mindy back in New York. Don't get me wrong. Guest star Lee Pace was funny and got a lot of great lines ("We should go. She won the secret hunger games we billionaires have.") to go along with all the good ones Mindy already gets ("I have a billionaire's sense of entitlement."). I simply have far less interest in the regular cast without her. She's one of the more vital leads of any comedy on TV.

Cougar Town "Full Grown Boy"
What's the point of Cougar Town without Bobby Cobb? I'm only accepting it because this is already the last season and the baby related humor of the next few episodes should be entertaining enough. No more Bobby is a big hit though.

The Middle "A Quarry Story"
This was a weird little episode. Frankie's back at the car dealership. Axl is being helpful. Sue is throwing a party and getting in trouble. Brick pretending to be a game show host felt like a note card from an idea board the writers finally got to use. None of these things were bad. Mike and Sue stories are always good. They just about exhausted the jokes to be had from the broken sink, so it was time for that to go. A solid and unspectacular episode.

Modern Family "Big Guns"
Does it make me a bad person that the only parts of the episode that I found funny were the parts when Lily pranked Cam? There are episodes in which I couldn't relate more to Mitchell if I tried.

Blackish "Martin Luther sKiing Day"
Look, I like the idea of Dre looking for racism in his very pampered life and failing. The execution was all off though. He was annoying and little else. I liked Bow acting as the counter-parent for this. That was fun. Dre though. So annoying.

A to Z "L is for Likability"
Did they change the length of the relationship in the opening credits? I thought it was originally 7 months and this week it was 5.

Parenthood "Let's Go Home"
With only two episodes left everything now is build up for the finale and I'm cool with that. Drew and Zeek have become one of the emotional cornerstones of the series somehow and get a good talk. Sarah and Hank get engaged. Joel and Julia get back together. As I said last week, I'd rather have a satisfying ending than a surprising one, so I'm fine if these episodes have the feeling of checking off items on a list.

Archer "Three to Tango"
I've lost track of all the recurring characters on Archer. I don't remember Conway Stern at all, but thankfully they got the point across that he was the one who literally stabbed Archer in the back.

Girl Meets World "Girl Meets the Master Plan"
Don't tease me. How much Shawn are we getting? He doesn't seem to be going away and I'm at nostalgia overload. I don't care if the under 20 crowd is lost by it. Make all the references to Sean looking through a girl's purse that you want.

Saturday Night Live "Kevin Hart; Sia"
Let's see, we got five good minutes of Kevin Hart standup (I love when comedians host), Kate McKinnon dusting off her Justin Bieber impression, a near breakdown when the monitor broke for the Instagram sketch, and some overall irritation over Selma not getting more Oscar love. In short, it had a little bit of everything that I needed.

Mulaney "French Roast"
Football cutoff a big chunk of the show and it's telling that Fox didn't even bother catching people up. On the plus side, that meant there was much less episode for me to watch. Series hate-watching nearly complete.

Girls "Triggering"
Hannah's not going to survive Iowa. She has one day of having her shit together before falling back in to old habits. She handled the criticism of her work about as well as I expected. Her cockiness going into it made the evisceration satisfying and her insisting that the one classmate had been abused made it oddly funnier.
I love that Hannah comes in thinking that she has some special understanding of the world that the others don't, like how she adds the preface before reading her work or tells the undergrad girl "It's just, I've seen a lot of things. I'm 25 years old." (perhaps the most Hannah thing she's ever said). She and Elijah really do just have their way with that party. I was also happy that her bike did get stolen. I worried that the show would try to paint the Midwest as too nice of a place (coastal bias and all), so that was a good reminder that it's not.

Looking "Looking for Results"
Oh Patrick, you're such a hot mess of anxiety. I think my favorite parts of the episode were him dealing with the health care professionals. Otherwise, this was a pretty serious episode, with Augustin spiralling a little more out of control, leading to an uncomfortable reunion of Patrick and Richie. I wonder if that was a one-off appearance of Richie or if they plan to keep him around in some capacity. Patrick's affair can't have a long shelf life, so we'll see where things are heading next.

Gotham "What the Little Bird Told Him"
A lot of relationship drama going on this week. Falcone learns about Eliza (RIP) working for Fish, just as it's becoming apparent that she kind of likes him. Edward fails to woo Ms. Kringle. Jim and Lee lock lips (It felt a little abrupt, sure, but c'mon, it's Morena Baccarin. How long do you need to be enchanted?). We'll see what the rest of the mod fallout is next week.

Scorpion "Forget Me Nots"
Gee, I sure hope that Sunday night's episode wasn't important or anything since football messed up the recording. Harumph! This is why I avoid Sunday CBS shows.
This episode was fine and all. They inch ever closer to Walter and Paige getting together. It was a great showcase for how all the individual genius can be used as a team (the scene when they get the top secret information out of the unsuspecting agent for instance). What I really want to talk about though is the beginning. Law and Order has the opening scene for a procedural down to an art form. Scorpion tried to mimic that opening with the guys discussing if something the guy did was cheating, but it wasn't right. It needed more broad character generalization. Where was the dog that got off its leash or the elderly woman nagging her husband, worried that she'll be late for the gala? Where was the joke that gets abruptly cut off before the punchline? There wasn't a single street vendor or homeless man to be found. Step up your game, Scorpion.

DVR Purge: 1/6-1/12

Winter has come. See you in May. I might be caught up by then.

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).

DVR Purge: 12/16-1/5

Aaaaaaand I'm back after a couple weeks off. You'll notice that I have a couple pre-Christmas episodes to burn off. That's because I didn't want to bother a post that's just SNL and Mulaney. That would've been pointless. In a sense, now we've reached a quorum.

Past Purges 

Saturday Night Live "Amy Adams/One Direction"
This was my favorite episode of the season yet and that shouldn't be a surprise. Amy Adams is indisputably a national treasure (she was born in Italy but she's ours now!). The Christmas episode always brings back old cast members who are giddy to return. And, Christmas is ripe with jokes. The Dr. Evil sketch was shockingly brilliant. I'd forgotten about that guy entirely and the moment I saw him on the screen, I couldn't believe I didn't think of him after this North Korea business. The Serial sketch was hilarious. Girlfriends talk show and Asian-American Doll were great too. Garth and Kat returned for Weekend Update. I even really enjoyed the bizarre raccoon sketch at the end. So much of this worked for me.

Mulaney "It's a Wonderful Home Alone"
Individual elements of this should work really well. Jane and Motif failing at getting John a gift and ignoring his suggestions. Nick Kroll as a Hispanic TV personality who is hiding his accent to see if he could still be popular, all the Home Alone allusions. This could all work. It doesn't. I wish I liked this show more. It's frustrating.
Could it be that even the clever jokes go exactly the way I'd expect? Or maybe it's because it doesn't embrace the fact that this is a cartoon world enough? Perhaps it's that there's so many showy performances but nothing for them to show.

A to Z "J is for Jan Vaughan"
It's weird how you start watching a show differently when you know a show is cancelled and episodes are being mercilessly burned off. For example, this week when I saw Sarah Baker, I started thinking "Boy was she good in 'So Did the Fat Lady'. Why can't she end up on a show that I like?". Then, Echo Kellum showed up and I thought, "Is that Echo Kellum? I hope I'm not being racist and that's a completely different guy. No, that must be him. He deserves to get more work too. I miss 'Ben and Kate'." That naturally led to a debate in my head about whether Lucy Punch or Leonora Crichlow is a better British best friend. Either way, they'd be great to hang out with-and would you look at that, the episode is over. Dead show walking. Still kind of fun to watch it.

Brooklyn Nine Nine "Beach House"
I couldn't've asked for a better episode to start the year. It was funny beginning to end, using all the characters optimally. There's vacation Terry, not worrying about having a C-story and just having a good time. Boyle and Diaz and scheming to help her relationship without a hint of tension from his past feelings for her. Gina is obsessed with meeting "6 drink Amy" and it turns out that "6 drink Amy" is just sort of depressing. Hitcock and Scully drop being completely incompetent for a week in order to scheme people into investing in their [unintentionally] underwater casino idea. Then there's Jake trying to make the best of feeling guilty and inviting Holt to the beach house. Holt, is simply a hilarious killjoy. And don't think I didn't notice the Kwazy Cupcakes mention.

Gotham "Rogues' Gallery"
Two interesting things I noted: Cobblepot is owning the Penguin moniker already and Penguin got completely shut down, which was needed. For a moment, I thought they'd developed him way too quickly as a major player.
They sure are having fun in Arkham Asylum. One episode in and it looks like a good mid-season detour. I'd like if they could do a half season arch there, but I get the feeling the countdown to Jim being back in the precinct is a short one.

Scorpion "Kill Screen"
I don't get why Sylvester would want to hide his video game guru days. In this group, it might earn some slight teasing, but I'd issue it would be a point of pride. They sure had to work to make a story in which Ralph had significance.

DVR Purge: 12/9-12/15

Once last big week before a shirt Christmas hibernation.


Past Purges 

New Girl "LAXmas"
I'm not really sure why, but whenever they double down on the "friends as family" stuff on New Girl, it rubs me the wrong way. It's fun to have them all at the airport though. This episode's a bit of a haze for me. I was still coming off a cold at the time.

Agents of SHIELD "What They Become"
There was a lot of craziness happening and I'm not sure I caught it all. I know Trip is dead, well, probably, and that's a bummer. It is nice the thin out the cast a little. Skye had some great scenes with her father and I'm starting to have fun with Ward seemingly changing sides whenever he feels like it. I could invite him back as a Spike character on the show now that they've kept up with him as a heel for long enough.

The Mindy Project "Christmas"
Oh, Danny at the all female nativity scene ("I have to get out of here. It is basically witchcraft.").
Given the mission statement in the pilot of the series, I really can't be irritated by all the romance drama in the show right now, with Danny and Mindy dancing around and engagement, Peter and Jeremy's love triangle, Morgan dating Julia Stiles (even though it was just last week that Tamara was still an issue). In the end, it makes me laugh. All is forgiven.

Arrow "The Climb"If there was any part of me that thought Oliver could be dead, then I would be much more intrigued by his "death". As is, I'm more worried about how sturdy the explanation will be to bring him back. I'm also still not convinced that Ray Palmer won't become a bad guy.

The Middle "The Christmas Wall"
I love this show! It manages to make things being shitty it being sweet. I mean, all the crap Mike goes through for the tree, getting stuck with a green and pink one and Sue loves it. Frankie tries to not do Christmas and then a shockingly efficient conversation with Mike gets her to change her mind. The Bossco fight ending in snow angels. I'm sorry, if you don't like this show, there's something wrong with you.

Modern Family "Hayley's 21st Birthday"
I'm almost scared to rewind Lily's story about where babies come from. I thought I heard something about tadpoles. I'm not sure where else it went.
I was impressed by the handling of the Jay/Phil story. When Phil finds out that Jay covered the difference to get a "better deal", his reaction isn't anger that Jay won't admit to being wrong. No, he's excited that Jay cares enough to do that. That Phil's opinion means something. I think all the Christmas around me is turning me into a softy.

Blackish "Black Santa/White Christmas"
It's nice having Blackish around. It does such a great job with going at race humor without leaving someone feeling left out, which is way harder than it looks. I was dying when Dre and his mom with talking about Latinos "jumping ahead" and defending it with "black people can't be racist". I worried about what losing Larry Whilmore as showrunner/writer (whatever he was doing) would mean, but so far, it's managed just fine without him.

The Big Bang Theory "The Clean Room Infiltration"
Sheldon and Amy's give exchange was just about the sweetest thing the show has ever done.
It was oddly nice to see people picking on Howard as being the stupid one in the group without Sheldon being around. It somehow makes Sheldon doing it less mean.

A to Z "I is for Ill Communication"
Nice try, A to Z. You used Christmas to tug at my heart. You're still a dead show walking. I can either be pleased by them dropping the farce of neither Adam or Zelda wanting to do Christmas together so quickly or complain about forcing a fight about it. Whatever.

Saturday Night Live "Martin Freeman/Charli XCX"
Martin Freeman is sort of the perfect host. He is completely professional and prepared for anything. He is willing to play the straight man and let the regulars do what they do best. I almost lost track of him in numerous sketches and that was by design.
Oh, then there's The Office: Middle Earth sketch. Brilliant!

Brooklyn Nine Nine "Stakeout"
Was I the only one hoping that this would be a two-parter and the other episode would be called "Another Stakeout"? Oh, I was the only one? I still think it would've been a great idea. I could watch an entire episode of Holt and Diaz out stoic-ing each other or Holt announcing who is in the dining room for breakfast or Holt trash-talking Wunch. I just love Holt.

Scorpion "Dominoes"
I wish I could buy the emotion in the episodes more, specifically from Walter. The rest of the cast I'm pretty good with. They all have clear motivations (Paige has a kid, Sylvester has his fears, Happy is orphaned, Toby deflects). Walter is a mix of a bit too much. He cares too much but also can't connect with people. I'm not sure if it's a shortcoming in Elyes Gabel or not, but Walter still feels like he's a tweak away from being a really engaging character.

DVR Purge: 12/1-12/8

Past Purges 

Agents of SHIELD "Ye Who Enter Here"
I can never argue with splitting the team up into more digestible parts, especially when those digestible parts include all of Patton Oswalt's brother characters. I wish they would let up on Ward's obsession with Skye. I stopped caring about that before it even started.

New Girl "Girl Fight"
I forgot how much I missed Nadia. Having her in the background as Jess and Cece had years of pent up arguments was the little bit of spice I needed.
This is going to be a weird question, but does Tran's granddaughter remind anyone else of Leslie Mann? Obviously, not in looks, but in mannerism and speech.

The Mindy Project "What About Peter?"
I sure hope this isn't the first sign of a breakup. Mindy and Danny have been a stabilizing force on the show. The apartment hijinks were fun though, from Peter's old roommates, to Mindy describing her dream apartment as having a "Strawberry shortcake meets Sadaam's palace vibe".
It's good to see them give Jeremy a little something to do, even if it drive toward that stupid love triangle with him and Peter. I did like Jeremy's British lullaby.

Arrow "The Brave and the Bald"
I didn't catch the Flash episode and it looks like it's less important to see for the plot than to get half of the side comments by the non-leads. I have to say, I didn't realize that The Flash had a Panabaker on it. I'm a little more interested now.
I do have one question about that final scene. Oliver is seriously firing arrows at Barry? I sure hope that means he officially has ceded his claim to being the better of the two, because what's the best case scenario if he does hit Barry?

The Middle "The College Tour"
As always, much like Frankie and Mike, I'm going to ignore what was going on with Brick, since ignoring him has been an angle the show as always enjoyed more than I have.
Mike + emotional beat = gold. I love how they can take something simple like Sue botching a series of college visits* and make my heart swell by having Mike worry that he hasn't been a good father. Neil Flynn is such an unheralded weapon on this show.
Frankie and Axl is more par for the course. Those two don't get along, but they really kind of do. If the whole thing was an excuse to fit a Devin Levin scene in (Axl dedicated the fumble to her), then I'm perfectly fine with that.

*I have to stop getting excited into thinking they'll actually go on location at IU.

Modern Family "Strangers in the Night"
The Dunphys: Sitcom 101. At some point, the depth of the joke has to overcome the tiredness of the joke of the boyfriend that no one believes Alex has. It came close doing that and Phil and Claire's instant worry about the boy when they meet him was funny.
The Tucker-Pritchetts: Apparently all it does take for me to enjoy a season of this show is Mitchell and Cam being on the same side. I wonder if casting Kristen Johnson began with the thought "We need a women who is too large to fit on their old couch" and became obvious from there.
The Pritchetts: "I was just reading off the DVD box." Best closing thought in a while.

Blackish "Colored Commentary"
Dre honest to god can't understand Bo's rules. It's not a power play. He doesn't throw her under the bus to make a point. He just doesn't get it. The 90s version of this would have it be a battle of wits with each side trying to get the upper hand, yet the wife ends up being the mastermind (See: Everybody Loves Raymond). I'm glad that we've evolved the family sitcom past that. This is more an issue of the difficulties of communication than anything.

Girl Meets World "Girl Meets Home for the Holidays"
I was giddy like a school girl to see Shawn (and the Matthews parents) come back. Any person of the age of 20 is watching Girl Meets World for 100% nostalgia reasons and this was the payoff for the investment. I kind of wish I could watch this with a 10 year old (Let me explain!), to see how much of the episode landed. They ran head-on into the Corey/Riley and Shawn/Maya parallels to good effect. I remember hearing that Rider Strong wasn't thrilled about returning to the Boy Meets World universe (perhaps those were only rumors) but he fit right in perfectly. I'm glad we get at least one more week with him.
...Now I really want to watch Boy Meets World again.

Saturday Night Live "James Franco/Nicki Minaj"
As with any episode, this was a mixed bag. The hip hop Christmas and deleting memories sketches were my favorite because I love stuff like that, that is essentially a collection of quick jokes or impressions featuring a lot of the cast. The geriatric Stars Wars a great response to what the teaser trailer left out. I think the Peter Pan sketch will only get funnier once I finally watch the Peter Pan Live on my DVR. Oh, and Grow-a-Guy was delightfully weird. Then there's the welcome return of the former Pornstars (a sketch I really should be more tired of by now than I am). Then there's Weekend Update's righteous Indignation over the Staten Island grand jury ruling. You know, maybe I did really like this episode, come to think of it.

Brooklyn Nine Nine "The Pontiac Bandit Returns"
The first Pontiac Bandit episode was a turning point for me in season one. While I already liked the show, in my mind, that was when it all clicked for me for the first time, so I was excited as soon as I saw the title. To my delight, it was just as good. Craig Robinson is in his sweet spot playing both a super nice guy and someone you really can't trust. He and Peralta get along frustratingly well and they tie is into Diaz's investigation so we get to continue with his infatuation of her.
They continue to find new ways to mine material from Santiago tirelessly seeking Holt's approval. Jeffords punctuates every beat of that too.
I wasn't crazy about Boyle and Gina with the present and parents, but does a C-story really need to blow me away.

Scorpion "Revenge"
A little surprised to see Sylvester survive an explosion like that in such close proximity. Then again, it is CBS.

DVR Purge: 11/25-11/30

It looks like it was mostly just Fox still doing new episodes. Luckily, most of my favorite network shows are on Fox.

Past Purges 
 

New Girl "Thanksgiving IV"
Setup a simple premise, let funny people be funny, and add a little bit of heart. That basic formula works wonders on this show. I also love seeing Alison Becker show up as a guest star in any show.

The Mindy Project "How to Lose a Mom in Ten Days"
They are getting more burn out of Rhea Perlman than I originally assumed. I sure would like a storyline with Jeremy one of these days.

Girl Meets World "Girl Meets Brother"
My god, that director or editor or whoever was in charge of it was heavy of the "awww"s from the studio audience. That was the most saccharine episode yet. I love how the show is slowly filling new fans in on the Boy Meets World key moments. Between the clips this week and the news that the next episode will be a mini-reunion (Shawn's back!!!), I'm super nostalgic right now.

Mulaney "Motif in the City"
Week 2 of officially hate watching. Good god!

Brooklyn Nine Nine "The Road Trip"
I want to be way more irritated by the stringing along of Peralta and Santiago but I just can't. The character dynamics are staying the same the whole time so it all feels so natural. The B and C stories were excellent too. Boyle and Holt is an underused and entertaining pairing. They are a good Yin and Yang. Then there's Stephanie Beatriz getting the opportunity to drop the seriousness of Diaz for an episode and be hilarious, revved up on the non-drowsy medicine.

The Walking Dead "Coda"
I'm not on the "The Walking Dead has been fantastic this season" bandwagon that everyone else is on. It's been better and it has been since they left the prison. This episode was a slight let down as mid-season finale, but getting to see all the characters was nice. There were a lot of beats that were really force though, like they were writing the episode backwards. Father Gabriel leaving the church still doesn't make sense except when it starts from the idea of him being the one locked out of the prison. I can see why they could want to have Beth take out Dawn, but 1) they really didn't build Dawn up enough to really worry about her and 2) that was such a stupid move to try to kill Dawn (They were in a stand-off already. Did Beth want to get everyone killed?). It was all very messy, but they've ended seasons or breaks on much worst notes before than this. Let's see where we go in February.

DVR Purge: 11/18-11/24

How does the week mark keep sneaking up on me?

Past Purges 

Agents of SHIELD "The Things We Bury"
Fitz is back to taking part in missions. Skye's dad is a little crazy. Bobbi is wearing fewer clothes. A lot to like this week. I'm very curious to see how they tie all this in to Agent Carter.

New Girl "Teachers"
I could focus on the hilarity of Nick teaching Schmidt how to do laundry (no one knows how to use permanent press) or Winston how to read a ruler (thank god they never got to the centimeter side). I could laugh at Coach and his new buddy. I could look to how entertainingly perfect Ryan is for Jess, despite her efforts to fight it. No, I'm going to focus on the coincidence that I watched The Preacher's Wife just last week only to have New Girl reference it multiple times, after going 27 years* without hearing it referenced a single time in my life.

*It came out in 1996, so 18 years, but you get my point for dramatic effect.


The Mindy Project "Diary of a Mad Indian Women"
These residents are just on the wrong side of the hilarity diagonal in which Mindy interacting with any youths for any reason is the best thing ever. Still good, but not as good as Mindy hanging out in a high school.

Arrow "Draw Back Your Bow"
It's inevitable to have a show about a vigilante creating new vigilante's who don't quite get it. Leave it to a comic book show to turn her into a masked crusader as well with a cupid proclivity. I'm not greatly invested in the love triangle they are creating, but Brandon Routh continues to be a worthy foil they are building toward.

The Middle "Thanksgiving VI"
Truth be told, for a lot of shows this week, I had a bunch of notes that I was working off and then lost in the process of file transfers, so I'm going off more memory than I'd like. Can we all agree that the second that Devin Levin was mentioned, we knew that she was going to be a perfect match for Axl? Yeah, she is pretty perfect for him and Gia Mantegna (Yes, daughter of Joe) is good enough in the role that I'm happy to have her back, especially since all the other kids are dating someone.
 
Modern Family "Three Turkeys"
The first underwhelming episode of the season. It's a good sign if it took eight episodes to get there. There's definitely a sense of everyone kind of hating each other, with Cam and Mitchell feuding with Lilly, Claire and Alex begrudging Luke and Phil's free-spiritedness, Gloria and Jay hiding from the rest of the family. Even Haley's plea for togetherness is only to offset Christmas plans. Make no mistake though, this is the front runner for Modern Family nominee for direction in next year's Emmys.

Blackish "Oedipal Triangle"
It's nice to see Zoey and Jr. interacting. I'm having the most trouble figuring out what to make of either one and putting them together goes a long way in working out the nuances.

Big Bang Theory "The Champagne Reflection"
An episode without an A-story. The three grouping were all kept isolated from one another for the majority which left if feeling really wobbly. Not bad, mind you. "Fun with Flag" was plenty funny and Leonard, Raj, and Howard reflecting on the dead professor's life work was poignant. I just left the episode wondering where the episode was. It was strange.

A to Z "H is for Hostile Takeover"
Andrew like climbing stairs. That's the co-lead of the show everybody. And we wonder why there wasn't a full season order. It's such a shame because in a different show, I'd love this cast.

Parenthood "Lean In"
Good lord, Joel and Julia. This better be it. They better be together now. I'm so under-engaged by their situation by now that I just want it to be over.
Oh, and every student should pull out of that school after seeing the way the headmaster lets her son get away with anything.

Girl Meets World "Girl Meets Friendship"
What's the over/under for how long before we see Lucas' Texas friends again? I saw 2.5 episodes.

Saturday Night Live "Cameron Diaz/Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson"
The Good: The girls are back and home for another holiday. The Schoolhouse Rock about executive orders was on point.
The Bad: Diaz's monologue that reeked of not being able to come up with a better idea.
The Undecided: Having Diaz do a scene with a lemur on a leash is inviting something to go wrong. The abstract play that was uncomfortably too right.

Mulaney "Motif and the City"
I don't like reaching this point, but yeah, I think I'm hate watching this. I just listened to the Mulaney WTF Podcast and convinced myself that I've been too hard on it or watching it the wrong way. Then I watched this week's episode and I still can't find an angle to come at it to enjoy it. Also, numerous things from that interview were oddly present in the episode tonight. Coincidence or is that guy just incredibly shrewd?

Brooklyn Nine Nine "USPIS"
There's two kind of guest stars: the kind you bring in to shake things up with the established characters and the kind that take over the episode completely and the established characters are written around. Ed Helms was definitely the latter in this episode. It was a fine episode around him, but he's was a bit of a drag and so was Peralta by-proxy.

The Walking Dead "Crossed"
I know the limited cast episodes allow for more depth and character development and have been some of the strongest episodes the show's done. Still, I like being able to see everyone in an episode. That said, it was a lot of moving pieces into place for whatever goes down next week. Glad to see Eugene is alive and some shading for Rosita that didn't involve screen time with Abraham.

Gotham "Lovecraft"
I never expected to enjoy the Bruce/Selina part of the show this much. The character development is still at an aggressive pace, but whatever. This doesn't need to match up with a larger DC universe and remembering that will be key for both the writers and the audience. I'm rolling with it for now*. Moving Gordon to Arkham Asylum should be fun for a while (especially with Morena Baccarin showing up).

*I did have to groan when IVY showed back up.

Scorpion "Talismans"
Special news coverage messed up my recording. Smooth move, Ferguson.

DVR Purge: 11/13-11/17

Getting one of these up before watching basketball gets me backed up (Note: that's likely to happen a lot for the rest of the season). You'll notice that's a picture from A to Z. Well, that's what you get for finally having Cristin Milioti singing in an episode.

Past Purges 

The Big Bang Theory "The Septum Deviation"
Last week Sheldon admits his feelings for Amy. This week, he's hopelessly worried about Leonard. I feel like a regression is coming any week now. I haven't seen "villain Sheldon" for too long and it would be foolish to believe he's been vanquished for good.

A to Z "G Is for Geronimo"
Here are the notes for this episode:
Are we going to get to hear Christin Milioti sing?
Please let Christin Milioti sing!
Why haven't they let C.M. sing yet?
They must be saving her singing for the end.
They totally are.
YAY! She's singing!

Parenthood "Aaron Brownstein Must Be Stopped"
These DVR Purges are the least read posts on this blog, so I don't feel bad about beating a dead horse. With that in mind, I'm going to return to my thoughts last week about the limited cast.
How limited is this supposed to be? There's an entire non-Braverman story with Hank and his old family. It was good but unneeded. Are they stringing a bunch of these limited cast episodes together so they can bookend the season with the full cast together? It would be nice to have a full episode thrown in the mix with this instead of this string of limited ones. Between Parenthood and The Walking Dead, I dyin' for an ensemble piece here.
Oh, and Max is out of control. A great performance by the actors involved, but that kid is losing it.

Saturday Night Live "Woody Harrelson/Kendrick Lamar"
Surprisingly, this episode tickled the crap out of me. Obama and McConnell getting drunk on bourbon (Woodford if I saw right). Crazy Eyes pops up out of nowhere! Another Last Call sketch!! Young Tarts and Old Farts reminding me that I'm a sucker for celebrity impersonations!!! For some reason, I laughed harder at the Match'd sketch than I have on anything this season. Probably my favorite episode of the season so far.

Brooklyn Nine Nine "Lockdown"
Peralta botching the temporary captain-ship until the very end was more of a plot-driven move than a character-driven one. There were plenty of entertaining gags around the station (Diaz loving Something's Gotta Give, "It's not that weird to say 'May I have some cocaine?'") and I enjoyed every part of the Holt/Jeffords story. Nothing special. Still one of the best things I'll see this week.

The Walking Dead "Consumed"
I'm getting a little tired of these limited focus episodes. It'll be nice to get back to the main group with some expanded scope next week. Really, when fatigue from what came before it is my big concern with this episode, that speaks well for it. Carol and Daryl are two of the strongest characters right now. Between the flashbacks covering the things that Carol has done so far off camera and seeing the other side of all this hospital stuff with the Beth episode, this week reminded me a lot of placing the last pieces in a puzzle. The concern was filling holes more than producing new conflict. I'm ok with that because the rest of the time was devoted to character development of two of my favorites.

Gotham "Harvey Dent"
Is anyone going to be left to be introduced after Batman comes along? At this rate, when Bruce finally masks up, all the people he's fighting will have AARP cards. I was more entertained by his interactions with Selina than I expected (once I ignored the Muppet Babies theme song playing in my head). She's loosening Bruce up significantly. It would be foolish of me to ask that they don't play into him having a crush on her, so I won't. In fact, I'm going to get in early on the Bruce/Selina shipping. I just can't wait for next week when they have to babysit a toddler Dick Grayson.

Scorpion "Rogue Element"
Scorpion asks nothing of me. I don't need to remember what happened last week. The only important things in any episode are said, not hinted at, and said many times in case I missed it the first time. The characters have an easy rapport. The dramatic moments (like learning about Cabe's dead daughter) never bring me too down and the sweet moments (like Cabe and Walter getting burgers at the end) make my heart swell just enough. Because of that, I ask nothing of it either.

DVR Purge: 11/11-11/12

 Got another one ready in well under a week. Go me!

Past Purges 

Selfie "Landline"
Karen Gillan is 26 years old. There is absolutely no way she doesn't recognize a land line phone. Even if we take into account the audience, the 18-49 demo is the coveted one that people are making shows for. Even people born in 1996 remember landlines from their early years. Can we officially retire the joke about people not recognizing analog phones? It's not even a funny joke.

Agents of SHIELD "The Writing on the Wall"
Agent Coulson v. Bobby Cox. I approve.Ward is still on the run and Fitz is no longer seeing things. They keep moving in good directions.

New Girl "Goldmine"
If I comedy makes me laugh, I can't hate it, because it's doing what it set out to. That majorly applied to this week's New Girl. In its own right, I'd call it a strong episode though. Everyone had something to do. Nick inched ever closer to fusing with Max from Happy Endings by pretending to be gay. Jess got stuck in legitimate shenanigans. The Schmidt/CeCe story keeps chugging along, featuring a pantomimed conversation between Schmidt and CeCe's breasts, set to an instrumental version of Vatamin C's "Graduation (Friends Forever)". Coach helped Winston get laid after playing the long con with their hot roomates (Welcome Amber Stevens and welcome back Alexandra Daddario). I tried to take actual notes of the episode but it turned into me quoting nearly every other line.

The Mindy Project "We Need to Talk about Annette"
Two things are abundantly clear: 1) They are getting every bit of use they can out of Rhea Perlman as long as they've got her. 2) They didn't have Allison Tolman long enough to do anything with her. I like Perlman, but she is starting to feel like as integral a part of Mindy and Danny's relationship as Mindy and Danny. Tolman on the other hand they brought in last week, talked up for the whole episode this week, then disposed of quickly. I think they internalized a bit to much of Peter's thinking in this.
Oh god, and the dubbing in post production of the seen in bed with Tolman was AWFUL. You can literally see her mouth not lining up with her saying "I'm like the Matthew McConaughey of the Romance Novel world"

Arrow "Guilty"
Laurel's new trainer is a vigilante too? She sure know how to pick 'em. I'm curious to see what happens next with Roy. Did he kill Sara or not? Even though I'm technically caught up on all the episode, I feel like I'm not mentally caught up, so everything is still stewing around in my head. For example, it's just hitting me now that Moira is dead. I'll get there eventually though.

The Middle "The Sinkhole"
Yes! My favorite kind of The Middle episode. There's some plot building up and all, but it's highlighted by a third act family scene with everyone together going insane. The infamous Death Napkin finally makes an appearance, only to be destroyed in the family's communal bowl of cereal. The comforter in the oven and blue bag make cameos as well. My love of call-backs has never been a secret, so I was in heaven even before Sue's delightful P.E. performance set to "Shake It Off".

Modern Family "Queer Eyes, Full Hearts"
Am I getting my hopes up? I must be, because I'm finally starting to believe that the writers are writing Cam and Mitchell as a couple who like each other again. Of course, they include a couple jokes about the perceived gender roles of each, but they're in good fun. Incidental, not intended. The episode suffered from a lack of Luke as any episode would. Otherwise, another fine episode is a season that has drastically improved my opinion of the series so far.

Blackish "The Gift of Hunger"
This has almost single-handedly revived the Parents v. Child family sitcom. This week Dre and Rainbow (seriously, that name...) teach the kids about the value of money, complete with the use of two different dated rap songs. Another strong episode.

DVR Purge: 11/3-11/10

I swear I did a much better job staying on schedule last year.

Past Purges 
 

Gotham "Penguin's Umbrella"
I actually know who Victor Zsasz is, so that was pretty cool. The majority of the show so far has been the Cobblepot story more than Gordon's. That's fine except I wonder if they are building him too quickly. His story can't arc all the way until Batman shows up, after all. As fun as Gordon and Harvey Bullock can be together, the highlight of the show has been the dueling scenery chewing of Fish, Falcone, and Moroni.

Scorpion "Father's Day"
Will Riley's father get to meet Riley? I think that's what the episode was about. There might've been a case of the week too, but I'm pretty sure it was about the father question. The flashbacks with Walter and Agent Gallo help to build that history. Happy's daddy issues give her a more interesting side than we've yet seen. I'm not sure I get much out of meeting Riley's dad though.

Selfie
Stupid elections ruined my recordings and the news that Selfie wasn't getting a season pick-up killed my desire to immediately catch up.

New Girl "Background Check"
Zooey Deschanel was on fire with all the physical comedy. Really, everything with her in the bathroom was Lucy-esque in all the best ways. The only thing that competed was Nick telling the officer all of the things he's done. That was some ace riffing.

The Mindy Project "Caramel Princess Time"
Here's the thing. I'm not totally condemning Peter's initial actions with Abby, played by Fargo's Allison Tolman (yay!). Tamra described Abby as her twin. It would be more than a little awkward to then get Allison Tolman (who is clearly not a skinny black woman). Now, obviously, he should've adjusted and ran with it, but there's a part of me that would be embarrassed enough by my confusion that I'd think about ditching.

Arrow "The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak"
It hadn't really occurred to me how little we know of Felicity's origins. This was a nice nod to that no matter how small it made the world. Then again, if I'm going to pick at coincidences then I have no business watching this show.

A to Z "F is for Fight, Fight, Fight"
Please, find a new angle for the "man feels emasculated" story.

Parenthood "These Are the Times We Live In"
Good lord, how much did they slash the budget this season? Are they saving up for some big explosions in the finale or are they flying everyone to Fiji for the last five episodes? A lot of people were missing this week. This is such a big cast that it wasn't all that noticeable until you think about it though. We finally get a good scene with Betsy Brandt on the show, which was a long time coming. This was the hardest I've ever had to work to accept Hank's Aspergers because he is so high functioning that you could very easily see it as him using it as an out from uncomfortable circumstances. That's the nature of the beast though.
Joel and Julia continue to play out their story as though they are following a completely different script from last season. I'll say it yet again. If we go through all this and they don't end up together, I'm going to be mad. Not, "I can't believe they killed off the Mother" mad, but certainly "He faked his death and became a lumberjack" mad.

Brooklyn Nine Nine "Jake and Sophia"
It's a great example of an episode using familiar tropes and it not bothering me because funny is funny. Oh, and Andre Braugher's "Hot damn" in the cold open: Perfection.

The Walking Dead "Self Help"
We finally get some fleshing out of Rosita, Eugene, and Abraham. We already kind of know Abraham but the flashbacks definitely clarified some things about him and his nature (i.e. that he has rage issues). Eugene is a fraud, which is hardly a surprise, but we know how his mind works a little more. Supposing that Abraham didn't kill him, I could be interested in knowing him better than "that guy who reminds me of Kenny Powers". Rosita is long overdue an actual character. I'm not sure what to make of it, but it's sort of a personality. I think I was too busy trying not to be weirded out by Michael Cuditz being literally more than twice Christian Serratos' age.

Mulaney "In the Name of the Mother, and the Son, and the Holy Andre"
I'm still watching this. I don't like it, but I am fascinated by it. It's almost willfully bad. The jokes are big and obvious. The characters don't interact so much as they exist around one another. It's the sort of show I'd hate if it was succeeding, yet knowing that its days are numbered, I'm transfixed by the weirdness of the overall effort.

Gotham "The Mask"
This isn't a subtle show. The characters that work the best (Cobblepot, Fish, Selina) do so because they go for broke. The ones that are more problematic (Gordon, Harvey, Bruce) are so because they try too hard to find an emotional truth. The people I wouldn't mind never seeing again (Barbara) don't even know what show they are on most of the time. I wish I knew what the end game of the series is supposed to be. Is Jim Gordon the central protagonist or is he just a cog in it all? Does he rise through the ranks to commissioner or does he fall into it because it's so bad that no one else can succeed there? So far, Cobblepot feels like the lead more than anyone. I could be interested in a show about the building of these mafia and villain empires. I'd just like to know if that's what I'm watching.

Scorpion "Risky Business"
Listening to Toby making his guesses about what artists/songs used the music generating software was one of those times when I expected to see "Youth Consultant" listed in the closing credits.

DVR Purge: 10/27-11/2

How did I get this far behind? I need to find a better system.

Past Purges 

Gotham "Spirit of the Goat"
This episode took care of a few needs in the series so far. Harvey Bullock gets a background. Revealing that he used to be a do-gooder like Gordon can only help down the line as a guide for what pitfalls Gordon should avoid to come out of this city, virtue in tact. Nygma's finally a character. That was nice. His interactions with Ms. Kringle were slight but certainly telling. I'm happy that Cobblepot fully revealed himself, because he hasn't been "in hiding" basically at all and the longer it took for this to fall back on Gordon the less plausible it was.

Scorpion "True Colors"
I was hoping this would be a Rashomon structure, hearing multiple points of view for the same story. That's not what we got though, which, when I think about it, is probably for the best. We don't know any of the characters well enough to have fun with that and it's too early in the show to do anything that experimental. Instead, it's about getting caught up on a story that already happened and getting a scene or two from each character for shading them a little more. They are pushing toward Walter and Paige heavily, which is expected. I love when they put something in an episode where all of the suddenly the characters are supposed to realize that Paige is drop-dead gorgeous. I get why it's done within the show, but c'mon. She's stunning in a waitress outfit. Oh, and I liked the little NCIS: LA crossover with Linda Hunt stopping by. That's how you do it. Don't make it take over the episode but have some fun with it.

Agents of SHIELD "A Fractured House"
It's kind of heartbreaking seeing Simmons being unable to figure out how she should be around Fitz, especially since Triplett has figured out how to. It'll be interesting to see what Ward gets up to on the loose now. I hope he gets to go heel again. His earnest "I won't lie to you" shtick is getting old and is beginning to oversell how much his and Skye's relationship means (or ever meant) to the audience. I'm burying the lead hear. I could watch Adrianna Palicki kick ass all day. I know she's not being added to the cast, but I'd like to watch a version of the show in which she is a regular.

The Middle "Halloween V"
That was everything I could want from The Middle. Frankie and Mike worry about how Brick is doing with his new potential girl-friend-thing. I do like the idea of him taking their advice toward the end. Sue takes another hit from the world when almost no one comes to her Halloween fund-raiser then promptly gets over it when the old man gives her that sliver*. Best of all, they take something slight like Axl getting locked in the library and use it as a chance to reveal his fears about the future to "Lebron". It's a satisfying humanizing scene and one that would feel uncomfortable if any other show tried it.

*By the way, there was something deeply unsettling about Sue breaking down her college education into how many 'slivers' she needs and how to pay for semesters and years of college, we're still talking about hundred or thousands of 'slivers'. Oh debt, you fowl beast.

Arrow "The Magician"
Oops. Missed this one entirely. I'll get around to it soon enough.

Modern Family "Halloween 3: AwesomeLand"
A lot of good throw-away jokes, from Luke in the straight jacket ("I think I fell asleep. I think this is like a Temple Grandin hug."), to "It's like August Osage County up here", or the house of whores. I never stopped finding Cam's inability to find Waldo funny. This was simply a good use of all the characters and an episode dense with jokes. This season has been on a roll.

Black-ish "The Prank King"
Halloween episodes are always fun. You knew where this episode was going with all the trickery and switching things up on one another, but it didn't matter since it was still fun. Frankly, the biggest surprise for me was that Pops didn't come out of nowhere at the end for one last prank on everyone.

Big Bang Theory "The Misinterpretation Agitation"
Billy Bob Thorton killed it! Beginning to end, his weird energy took over the episode and worked perfectly. I didn't even realize he was going to be in the episode. Big Bang tends to user guest stars as well as any show on TV (Bob Newhart and James Earl Jones come to mind immediately). I'm not sure I ever need to see him again, but for an episode, this was great.

A to Z "E is for Ectoplasm"
According to reports, A to Z is dead and will only get as far as "M is for...", so the pressure is really off to fully cover my thoughts of the show. Instead, I want to focus on the best moment of the episode: when Stu scoffs one too many times and Andrew thinks that it's his peanut allergy. That was as perfect a moment as I saw all week. It's unexpected, funny, and more than anything the show has done yet painted a clearer picture of their friendship. Based on the other four episodes, this was probably a fluke, but there's been small clues like this that once it settled in, this show could be very entertaining.

Parenthood "Too Big to Fail"
While I don't want to encourage not seeing characters every week, this week did have some breathing room that really helped it. That and all the stories were simple and small. Hank is trying to understand his daughter (with an assist from Amber talking some sense into her for at least a day). Kristina wants to make sure that Max's new friend isn't taking advantage of their hospitality. Adam and Crosby deal with financial troubles. Drew worries about his future and his major dictating his life. Just a great episode of Parenthood.

Saturday Night Live "Chris Rock/Prince"
Ugh. That was not a great episode. Prince was nice. Chris Rock doing stand-up is good. Taylor Swift Vertigo is funny. Overall, this was flat though. None of the sketches were great. The Anniversary sketch was tone-deaf even without Leslie Jones missing her cue. Bank Robbery went long. The ISIS Shark Tank joke didn't have the balls needed to reach the tipping point from offensive to biting.

Brooklyn Nine Nine "The Mole"
Is an embedded car commercial a requirement for all Fox shows now? Are The Simpsons exempt from it at the very least? It doesn't bother me much. It's more of a curiosity. This season keeps chugging along. Terry's concern with making sure his daughters were getting the right education, "'sup, Rosa' followed by "nevermind", Holt explaining how he knew about Boyle and Gina, and Holt's middle name being Jacob were all highlights. As I've said many a time about Parks & Rec., Community, and 30 Rock, I wish I had more to say, but when it's so good, there's not as much to chew on.

The Walking Dead "Slabtown"
This is about the right time for another solo episode. Beth has been gone for so long that it felt right for it to be about her. In the last season, they did a great job of building her into a real character, so it wasn't even a stretch to have it be just her. Christine Woods and Tyler James Williams are welcome to be around for as long as they want. I'm assuming Noah is the person who Darryl has with him and we'll get to see what happened to Carol soon. Until then, it'll be fun to see how Beth destroys that hospital from within. I nearly thought she got it overran this week. I can't believe that after all this time, it looks like we are heading back to Atlanta. Maybe this journey hasn't taken us so far after all.

Mulaney "Sweet Jane"
Ok, now they're just fucking with me, right? Motif is literally getting obsessed with Friends, there's a jump cut to Elliott Gould, and they don't even acknowledge it. That's too overt to be an accident. When coupled with the Seinfeld quip, I have to say that I appreciate the brazenness of the show essentially predicting the criticism of the show, but I wish this attitude came along with a show I enjoyed more fully. Almost every conversation sounds like the dictation of a stand-up set. It's so unnatural. If I could remember to go ahead and delete this series recording from my DVR then I'd stop watching it now.