Holy shit! This is why I don't leave this to weekly. I forgot to post what I had Sunday. Now I've got this hot mess. I'm not proofreading. Sorry for any typos.
Past Purges
The Middle "The Drop Off"I think this show will have one of the easier times dealing with the child going to college. I doubt we will see any of the Haley nonesense from Modern Family. Mostly, I'm so happy to have this show and its callbacks (Yay! They remembered the snack bag this time!).
Back in the Game "Pilot"I'm surprised how easily and effectively Maggie Lawson carried this episode. I never thought of her as lead material, but this has me thinking otherwise. I worry about anything that is this kid-heavy and James Caan is nowhere near as effective [yet] as he should be. There was enough chuckleworthy moments in this (Lawson throwing the ball at the douche's head; the son kissing the other boy, "He's afraid of me now, and he doesn't know why") that I'm absolutely excited for the next episode.
Modern Family "Suddenly, Last Summer; First Days"The first half hour is Modern Family at its best. The second, was good although a step below. Cam and Mitchell's proposal was sweet. I loved the gag with the baby spitting up whenever gay marriage was brought up. Phil manipulating the two daughters by using each's fear of becoming the other was masterfully staged. I wasn't as crazy with Phil and Gloria as extras in the commercial though and Cam dressed as a colonial is not inherently as funny as they'd hoped. But, when those are my biggest gripes about an hour of this show, I'm considering that a good thing.
The Bridge "All About Eva"I already miss Gus. There were some killer character moments with Marco and Sonya. It's amazing how interesting this show can be when there's no masterplan at work. You know, if they don't schedule this to go into premiere season next year, I just may stick with it to see what a second season will look like.
The Big Bang Theory "The Hofstadter Insufficiency"Two thing struck me immediately with this first episode back: 1) I don't remember why Leonard is gone at all. 2) They are keeping Raj's ability to speak to women and I could not be more pleased with this development. It's rare that a show can save this big of a character change for this late in its run.
Parks & Recreation "London"As always with P&R, there's too much in a single [normal-sized] episode to mention everything I loved about it, so an hour that was this good will surely be short-changed. Ron's wedding has to be one of the finest encapsulations of numerous characters on a show that I've ever seen. Hilarious, sweet, and completely true to the characters. Then there's all the maneuvering to explain Andy's absence. The rich British version of Andy was hilarious as was the meta-joke explaining how he lost so much weight (they tried to hide it, but that dude is ripped). I continue to be baffled that this show isn't even a medium-sized hit. It has everything you could possibly want from a comedy and does it at the highest level for almost its entire run.
The Big Bang Theory "The Deception Verification"I hate having to turn my mind off to laugh. I won't pretend that Raj and Wolowitz comparing breast sizes isn't a funny image. It absolutely is. Plenty of shows, at times this very show, are able to make me laugh even harder than that without having to use a plot device as hackneyed and broad as "Male character A acts more feminine". Sorry, I'm just angry that this show has 5x the ratings Park & Rec had.
The Michael J Fox Show "Pilot"This is definitely a safer comedy choice for NBC. Like most pilot, it doesn't know what it is or what it does well yet. That can be forgiven. I'd like a little more sense of how it can be different than any other family comedy I've seen before. This is likable enough that I will be patient to wait for that.
The Crazy Ones "Pilot"On one hand, Kelly Clarkson. On the other hand, who cares? Kelly Clarkson. As far as pilots go, they made the right choice by starting with Kelly Clarkson. I'm very worried about a lot of things about this show, including Robin Williams steamrolling over the rest of the cast with his energy, Sarah Michelle Gellar never getting more to do than spoil the fun, James Wolk killing someone's mother and getting a promotion, and the show getting too concerned about guest stars over developing the leads. Then again, Williams could use his energy as a catalyst for the rest of the cast, someone could call up Joss Whedon and learn the tricks to unleashing SMG as a dynamic performer, Wolk could not be responsible for the death of anyone's mother, and the guest stars keep the show from getting stale. A strong start. I'm curious to see what happens next.
The Michael J Fox Show "Neighbor"Not the greatest 2nd episode. To already be having this much farce worries me. They are handling the Parkinson's well. I like the daughter more than most teenage daughters in shows. Wendell Pierce has great, classic best friend material and potential. I'm not sure how excited I am to watch Michael J Fox do a 80's family comedy without a laugh track though. Enough raw material to get a lot better.
Parenthood "It Has to Be Now"I've very curious to see what they do with a full season. Oddly enough, the story I'm most interested to follow up on is Max and Hank. Ray Romano gels with Max Burkholder really well and I'm always root for Max to find some normalcy. I worry that there's going to be a lot Crosby and Jasmine bickering which I could do without, but the returns are generally enough to forgive the annoyance. God, this cast is fantastic.
SNL "Tina Fey/Arcade Fire"I don't watch regularly enough to be sure but didn't this seem like a lot of focus was being given to the new featured players? I'm not sure that any of them immediately jump out the way that Kate McKinnon did last season. It didn't hit me until now just how much they lost with the departures of Hader, Sudeikis, and Armisen. Taran Killam is setup perfectly to be the next breakout player as he is a nice cross between Hader and Sudeikis. Kenan Thompson and Bobby Moynihan as both solid and firmly established but you get the feeling that if they haven't taken over yet, they aren't going to. It's all up to the female cast members to step up. At least one of them needs to step it up. My guess is that it is between McKinnon and Strong. Strong, by the way, did fine at the news desk but she definitely has some settling in to do. Oh, and Tina Fey was a wonderful host to start the season. There really is a den-mother quality to her when she shows up that mixed nicely with all the new faces and increased roles.
Oh yeah, the sketches. I should probably mention those:
-The Obama sketch at the beginning was funny enough. For all Jay Pharoah's excellent impressions, Obama isn't his strongest. I loved the first of many Aaron Paul appearances leading me to ask when he's getting his hosting gig because that would be awesome, bitches!
-I've watched the Girls parody numerous times and it still makes me laugh.
-The Porn stars is such a weird and funny sketch. I find it most interesting that it is always at the end still. I get that the material probably dictates that, but generally something that popular moves earlier.
-Lorne Michaels' bit in the "New Cast Member or Arcade Fire" bit was awesome. Poor Kenan.
Breaking Bad "Felina"All season long, I've been saying that I don't expect the Breaking Bad finale to be great. It just had to be good and, most importantly, complete. No half-measures. That was exactly what this finale was: good and complete. So, I couldn't be more happy with Breaking Bad the series than I am now. It has reserved its place on the TV Mt. Rushmore, rightly so. I'm now in the camp of people who kind of wish they hadn't done the flash forwards though. Having them certainly kept me interested. The problem is, in a structure like that, you automatically assume that this is leading to a climax, of sorts: a grand moment. Don't get me wrong, the car trunk automatic ("Yeah, science!") is clever and marks the final act of Heisenberg, but it was all cleanup. Overall, the finale was a little too easy for the man who has luck first, timing second, and planning third on his side the whole series. There was little scrambling here. Everything was planned and executed perfectly and in a single episode, no less. I don't want to harp on the little things though. Let's run down everything that was done right:
-Jesse is free (yay!) and they rightly determined that it wasn't in his character to kill Walt.
-Walt is dead (yay?). He is still a monster to the world and his name is ruined. Then again, he got to clear his name is small ways by being honest about his motivations finally, telling Skyler that he didn't kill Hank (and Gomez), and freeing/saving Jesse.
-Todd is dead. Even that death was too good for him.
-Skyler appears to literally have her ticket out of the investigation into her and Walt. I'd like an alt-narrative where she wins the lottery with those numbers. By the way, are we just going to ignore figuring out how he got in the apartment so easily while it was being watched?
-Flynn got nothing for breakfast.
-Lydia will die, which is good, although I feel bad for her daughter. A lot of orphaned kids on this show. Also, can anyone explain how exactly he poisoned her? I didn't catch any Huell-level slight of hand going on.
-Speaking of Huell, did that poor guy ever get to leave the motel.
-For rich people, Gretchen and Elliot's security sucks.
-Marie is at least on good terms with Skyler again. I wish we knew a little more about her situation. They told us what we needed though.
-It's nice to see Badger and Skinny Pete one last time, even if I do want to know how Walt found them and convinced them to help out the most wanted man in the country.
-We even got Hank, via flashback. Kind of reminded me that he helped spark the idea in Walt's head in the first place. In short, I am saying Hank is the real villain of this series.
-All I asked for was one shot of Saul, working at a Cinnabon, wearing one of his three pairs of Wranglers.
Finally, I'm just gonna say it: I would've liked an explosion or two.
How I Met Your Mother "Last Time in New York"This was an ok episode and all I'm looking for is ok. I enjoyed Marshall's obnoxious disgust of Packers fans because I think we all know a sports fan who is like that (or perhaps are them from time to time). I'm pretty sure I won't get tired of Lily having the Kennedy package even if they do it all season. I'm just going to throw it out there that I expect the mother in some way at least every other episode. Sort of a one for them, one for me situation. We'll see how next week goes.
SHIELD "0-8-4"Baseball created DVR issues. I may talk about it in the next edition.
Brooklyn Nine Nine "The Slump"Ok, they've established the rapport between the Captain and Jake Peralta. They can start using some other combinations now. The rest of the cast is coming together and so far there are no characters that I dislike. We are only three episodes in, so as long as I can get a chuckle or two and like the cast in broad strokes, I'm pleased with it.
New Girl "Double Date"Poor Winston. I hope they have some plans for him this season, preferably not cat-based. I'm not looking forward to potential adversary-Schmidt against Jess and Nick, who I don't have any trouble believing will continue being funny as a couple. I've not been a big fan of this short-lived dating scheme of Schmidt's so the less I speak of it, the better. Farewell.
The Mindy Project "Music Festival"I hear Adam Pally joins the cast in this. More baseball and DVR issues. Hopefully Fox isn't being a dick about posting the episode.
Trophy Wife "Cold File"I got a much better sense of what this show will look like and I'm completely on board if that is the case. It looks like it is going to be a messy show in a good way with all the kids and wives. Did I miss Natalie Morales in this one or was she not in it? If she's not going to be used, she needs to come back to Parks and Rec.
