DVR Purge: 9/17-9/23

Aaaaaaaaaand, we're back. Not only are shows returning. They are coming back in such volume that's I'm having trouble keeping up. My goal is to begin as many shows as possible and drop them as I see fit. That means there's going to be a lot for the next few weeks. Ideally, I'll have a couple purges a week during this period, although I'm actually finding it harder to find the time to write these up while on vacation. Apparently, I need work to put off to really motivate me to write a purge. Go figure.

Past Purges 

The Bridge "Beholder"
What has plenty of room yet keeps fucking up my set recordings? If you guessed my DVR, you'd be correct. I sure hope this wasn't the season finale or something big.


Married "Family Day"
Married has mastered the art of making everyone awful to each other then earning a sweet ending for the episode. I don't fully understand how they do it. Russ is insufferable in his dissatisfaction. Lina is back to being the buzzkill wife. Jess and Shep are mean to each other. AJ's in his own little world of denial. For a moment, I wondered what this season was amounting to. Then, there's the cookout and everything's alright again. It's oddly fitting that these friends all bond over hearing each other's suicide plan. That's a simple distillation of what kind of show this is. I'm not sure I need this show to get another season, but I wouldn't be opposed to it, given a free enough TV schedule.

You're the Worst "Fists and Feet and Stuff"
That sure was a strange little journey. I didn't know what to think of most of the season. It sure did end strong though. The flashback episode last week changed the narrative and this week's conclusion nailed the tone. I almost would prefer it didn't get renewed because I can't imagine a stopping point this good, with Jimmy and Gretchen moving in together, Edgar getting back up on his feet, and Lindsay no longer stuck in a marriage she clearly didn't want to be in. I'm tempted to watch the whole season again to see if it was actually inconsistent in the beginning or if the incorrect marketing of the show made it hard to appreciate what it is. You see, it was sold as a show about two horrible people trying to circumvent romance, when it was really about two damaged people figuring out how to let someone else in. Very much a solid show. I mean, the finale actually pulled off the line "The worst possible draft of my life is the one without you in it." without making me roll my eyes.


Girl Meets World "Girl Meets 1961"
I'm having a lot trouble accepting the fact that in 1961, we'd be following everyone's great grandparents. We have a pretty good idea how old Corey and Topanga's parents are and it doesn't compute. Actually addressing the episode though, they continue to push hard on Maya having no faith in herself. A little diversity in character would be nice, but they continue to nail those beats. Lucas and Maya's feuding has quickly become my favorite part of the series. It's yielded legit laughs from me which I never expected for a Disney Channel show. I could poke at some of the historical inaccuracies or the likelihood that their grandparents great grandparents would've met (or the ability to trace it). That would be ignoring the nature of the show I'm talking about though. So, I'll leave it with agreeing that the emotional beats matched up with what the show is trying to do.

Big Bang Theory "The Locomotion Interruption"
The premieres for The Big Bang Theory are normally a little clunky. They always feel the need to do something big and Friends-y in the finale like Penny and Schrodinger's cat, Leonard going on an expedition at sea, or Penny and Raj sleeping together. The premiere is there to either untie the twist or explain the passed time. Naturally, this season, the concern is getting Sheldon back from his train trip. Given that the focus was re-establishing things, I'd say this episode was a success. We learn about Sheldon's trip, in which he never left any train station (which sounds about right). Stuart is living it up with Ms. Wolowitz, making Howard inexplicably jealous. Amy is still feeling unappreciated by Sheldon, only to be given another small sliver of hope that things are progressing (The "I want to have coitus with Amy" scene was a little cheap though). Raj is still dating the same girl. Hopefully they can get the actress for a few more episodes, because she's going to feel like his girlfriend in Canada if they keep talking around her. The big jump forward came with Penny, who both changed her hair (something the writers went out of their way to bring up now, so they wouldn't have to address it later) and got a new job thanks to a mutual fear of Bernadette with her interviewer. Big Bang has always been about small, incremental steps and this had plenty.

Big Bang Theory "The Junior Professor Solution"
Can you hear it? That's the sound of some very exhausted writers and research assistants who put in overtime to come up with smart questions and answers for Sheldon and Howard. Since last season, one of the big concerns with the show has been the Howard/Sheldon relationship for some reason, and it looks to continue now, with the personalized class Sheldon is teaching. I am a little disappointed that we won't get to see Sheldon's best Dick Solomon impression, teaching a class of overwhelmed students. It makes sense for him to get eased into it by teaching a friend like this. There's a lot of potential in this and I hope it doesn't get dropped as a background gag for the rest of the season.

Gotham "Pilot"If the pilot was the writers/producers trying too hard and they're going to cool it with the overt allusions to future events (namely, who everyone becomes) and not a long term thing, then I'm excited to see what they do next. The look of the show is great. Ben McKenzie and Donald Logue are two actors I love when given good enough material. Jada Pinkett Smith is having a lot of fun. I have no interest in seeing "The Countdown to Batman Show", but virtually any other direction I'd happily follow for the season. The next couple episodes are key.

Scorpion "Pilot"
'Autistic' does not mean 'genius'! Beyond that, the pilot was fun. I'm not sure how long I'll be sticking with this, but there's potential for a Chuck type of show here that I could really enjoy. We'll see.

Agents of SHIELD "Shadows"
Way to go! My worry with AoS is that it would be so easy for the writers to give into bad habits and it hasn't been on long enough for the benefit of the doubt. After the strong end to last season, there was a lot riding on this premiere and they got as right as I could hope. There's an agreeable time jump and a number of new characters or characters with increased roles, and we are still dealing with the consequences of last season. The gang is mostly split up although they aren't so scattered that it would take a lot of work to reassemble. Skye is a full agent working with Triplett (yay for keeping him around). She's working with Xena Izzy and her mercenaries. Fitz is [currently] brain damaged and imagining Simmons being around (I must say that I didn't see that coming). Coulson and May are busy managing the new operation. Ward is a prisoner, getting the Hannibal Lector treatment (maybe a Blacklist comparison would be more apropos). The episode was mostly setup, so I expect we will really get into the thick of what the season will look like starting next week. For now, I couldn't be more pleased.

New Girl "Dice"
A Story: Schmidt teaching Jess how to do online dating.
B Story: Nick, CeCe, and Coach are high at Winston's cop party.
In both cases, it's a simple setup followed by as many jokes as possible jammed in. It moves the larger story along of Jess getting back into the dating field and hints at some more growth for Schmidt. CeCe has something to do and it isn't with Jess or Schmidt. Winston has something to do that involves other cast members. In short, this is the version of New Girl I most prefer.

The Mindy Project "Annette Castellano is My Nemesis"
I get the feeling the first half of the season is going to involve some issue that Mindy and Danny face as a couple and how they handle it each week. If they can all be at least as good as meeting Danny's mother, then I have no issue with that. The great Rhea Perlman is the ideal Italian mother and I liked Mindy's fool-proof plan to make mothers love her. When the episode began with Danny's mom thinking Mindy was the cleaning lady ("Why didn't you tell your mother I wasn't the cleaning lady? Do I look Dominican to you? Do not answer that.") I was very afraid of the farce that could follow. They abandoned that quickly and the episode was much more enjoyable as a result.
Elsewhere, I'm confused by what's going on with Brendan and Jeremy (who was either entirely absent from the episode or forgettably present). Is the girlfriend just gone now? For how much Brendan went on about the betrayal, they didn't do much to move the story along. Ike Barinholtz and Adam Pally got to be funny and there were a lot of dogs though, so what am I complaining about?