The Good Wife – While last week was all about power, this week was all about sex and its consequences. At the State’s Attorney’s, it’s about Peter trying to run a clean shop (but also an apparently racist one). At Lockhart Gardner, it’s about how sex influences one’s decisions with Caitlin quitting, not because Alicia yelled at her, but because she’s pregnant. And in the courtroom, it’s about paternity, with Dylan Baker as Colin Sweeney, fighting Morena Baccarin (the former “companion”) over who fathered her child. Sweeney has become a really great asset to this show, and “Long Way Down” was a great example of that. You never know where he is going to go, and it makes for some really interesting TV. I liked that he met his match in Baccarin here, who is just as devious as he is. Overall, this was a very taut episode of The Good Wife, but there wasn’t really much movement, so I don’t have much to say. Don’t take that to mean that this wasn’t an eminently watchable hour. It was, and it almost always is.
Smash – I’ve been lamenting for a few weeks now that this show hasn’t quite figured itself out yet. And this week’s episode, “Chemistry,” doesn’t do much to change my opinion. It was a completely average hour, with no breakout moments for me. All I can really think about now are the complaints I had while watching it. One, Angelica Houston is a much better actress who deserves more than the “Ah, I love how the little people live” storyline. The whole plot with Ellis was tired and annoying. The same goes for Michael and Julia. I just don’t see their chemistry, and that made for one of the least sexy sex scenes I have seen in a long time. Katherine McPhee also continues to be lackluster for me too. Give me more of Ivy’s neuroses any day. And give me more Jack Davenport!! He’s the most interesting/believable character of the show, and the writers are wasting him. They need to fix that. And soon.
Raising Hope – I’ve kind of been giving this show short shrift lately, and by no means should that be an indication of the quality of this show. Raising Hope consistently makes me laugh, often more than the other shows I watch, but it doesn’t have many breakout episodes that I want to write home about. It’s a solid comedy but not a star one. It’s Scotty Pippin, and who talks about Scotty Pippin when there are Michael Jordans running around scoring points up the wazoo – in this metaphor, the Michael Jordans are Community, Parks and Rec and Cougar Town. So, I apologize for not writing more about this show. That said, “Spanks Butt No Spanks” was an entertaining episode. I liked how the show scaled itself down to just include the core cast – no Maw Maw, no Barney or Frank. I think the best episodes of this show deal with raising Hope (who would’ve thunk), and this was a good example of that. Hope is so very cute. Other than saying that, I’m not sure I have much more. Next week maybe.
Justified – I read in the review of this episode over at avclub.com that the reviewer feels this season is so dense, he needs other people to tell him if he missed/misunderstood anything. I kind of feel that way too, except I don’t have the following that avclub does, and therefore, I don’t have commenters correcting me. I find it hard to break down this show week to week because everything is moving towards the finally when everything comes together. It’s like trying to judge a chess game play-by-play. So what chess pieces were placed this week, in “Loose Ends”? Eva becomes the pimp of Harlan. Quarles makes a deal with Limehouse. Boyd throws a wrench into the sheriff election by hijacking the town hall meeting, using the same technique as Mags from last year. Tanner Dodd, Quarles’s henchman dies. And Raylan starts preparing for the war that is coming to head in Harlan. The final scene of this episode was, I think, as sign of things to come. Limehouse threatening to scare Raylan with tales of his dead mother sent shivers up my spine, and I can’t wait until these two characters come to a face-off. Only four more episodes left for the sparks to fly.
New Girl – I went on last week about how much this show has grown on me, and then, we get an utterly mediocre episode like “Control.” This is a conceit seen thousands of times and this time, there wasn’t really anything new to add. And I don’t have much to add about this episode. Except this: What the f-k are you doing, Jess?!? You don’t pick up furniture from the street!! That’s how you get bedbugs!! Oh, and I did find the whole money thing funny between Winston and Nick. That should have been the main plot of the show. Ok, now I’m done.
Breaking In – While I have admitted that I watched every episode of last year’s run, I found myself questioning how much longer I’m going to continue watching this show now that it has returned. It just seems all over the place, too broad, and generally not that funny. There was a quirk last year that is lacking now. Plus, how many new characters are they trying to introduce? I counted two new ones this week – wacky sidekicks, anyone? – in addition to the two last week. I don’t know. This show is on some serious thin ice. What good can I say about this episode, “Game of Jones”? I guess I liked the references to Ghostbusters. I guess.
Modern Family – “Fizbo” is one of my favorite episodes of this series, so I was intrigued by the return of the clowns. And I really enjoyed the clown humor, especially because I think Bobby Canavale is great. (If you don’t believe me, watch Win Win or The Station Agent). I enjoyed that part of the show. I also thought Phil’s story had moments, even though it is a very, very, very cliched story at that. My problems with the episode? Jay and Gloria continue to be boring. Claire continues to be one dimensional as the annoying mom. And Manny continues to be unbelievable as a character in general. My main complaint, however, is that the show doesn’t stay true to its characters at times, especially with the children. They keep putting jokes in the mouth’s of the kids that are far too old for the kids saying them. This has always been true for Manny, but now they’re doing it to Luke. Luke is supposed to be the dumb one, but all of a sudden, he’s making a joke, saying “Social networking or social not–working?” Uh, given every other thing he’s said in the whole series, I don’t think he knows clever wordplay. It just rang so false to me, and these instances are starting to add up for me.
Suburgatory – Adding Tessa’s mother into the mix feels off for me. The whole point of this show is that it’s escapist fun. “Ohh, look how the frivolously rich live.” That type of fun. But now, with the episode, “Independence Day,” it feels like “this is the part of the first season when the show tries to add more intrigue.” It just feels very forced and tired to me. I never thought this show was life-changing, but I did think it was better than this.
Happy Endings – This show has been pretty effing stellar lately, so even though this was an excellent episode, I wasn’t as thrilled as I have been of late. The cursed holiday is a familiar story, as is the dinner where nobody eats. That said, I thought Max was hilarious every time he said “The curse of Penny’s birthday strikes again,” and I enjoyed how this episode was a call back to the pilot of the show (even though it was a less than spectacular pilot at that) I think the bit where you see Brad breaking up with a series of women only to have the restaurant protect him was my favorite part. Thank God for mariachi bands, tables bolted to the ground and plastic knives.
Private Practice – There was a time, maybe a year and a half ago, when I liked this show more than Grey’s Anatomy. I mean, Addison is a much more compelling lead character than Meredith, and the show had more interesting story lines, not just outrageous surgeries. So I preferred it. But not anymore. I think this lack of interest started when they introduced Derek’s sister, Amelia, into the practice. She was a solid guest star, but now that she’s a regular, I just find her annoying and melodramatic. I don’t really care about her drug abuse, and I really don’t care that Sheldon is in love with her. In fact that story seems to lack so much chemistry, it’s practically a black hole. There’s also the fact that the characters seem to be floundering as of late. Everyone is in a form of stasis, not sure where they want to go. I talked about Sheldon and Amelia, but Addison is still wavering about babies and Jake, Violet and Pete are dancing around each other, Sam doesn’t know what to do with her sister, Charlotte and Cooper are waiting for the other shoe to drop and Erica to die. And I’m waiting for the show to get good again. Hopefully it doesn’t take too long. This show usually does pick up towards the end of the season, so I’ll try to look forward to that. Until then…
Grey’s Anatomy – This is the first week that Grey’s has been back since I started my blog, but I’m not going to try to convince you that the show is great or good or even worth watching. I’ve kind of been holding on to the show so long out of habit (kind of like The Office), but it still entertains me, it still has characters I like, and sometimes it still has moments that move me. Such was the case at the end of this episode, “One Step Too Far.” When Cristina finally gets so fed up with her own obsessing and confronts Owen, it really hurt to watch their relationship crumble. As viewers, we have been invested in Cristina, probably more than any other character, and so I want her to be happy. I actually hate Owen for treating her so badly, and I wish the writers would fix things for them. But then again, I wish they wouldn’t because life isn’t like that and sometimes things fall apart. Goddamn you, Grey’s, for making me invested again. I may actually look forward to watching next week. (Oh, and prediction, Owen totally slept with Kepner, right? Who wants to bet me ten bucks?)
The Office – I feel a little lazy using the metaphor I’m going to use, but this show set me up so perfectly, I can’t help it. I feel like, as viewers, we’re stuck in Scranton, where anything goes, where a new inexperienced boss can come in a screw things up royally, where everything is falling apart, when in our heart of hearts, our love is really elsewhere, say Florida (or Greendale or Pawnee.) I feel like the collapse of the Scranton office in this episode is a little like the collapse of the show, and it makes me sad. Just last week, I talked about how the writers finally got a good episode, and then this week, everything is a royal, f-king mess. What are they doing adding Catherine Tate to the mix? I mean, honestly, I hate her character. And now things look horribly bleak for the future. Poor Jim, too. He seems to be the only one on the Titanic to realize that they are sinking. I know how you feel, Jim. I really do.
Up All Night – Not really a memorable episode this week. I do love Eve Best, but even she couldn’t save “Baby Fever.” I like Eva better when she’s real, not putting on her persona around other people. And I feel like the “lady-girl” turning on Eva is something more like 30 Rock than Up All Night. The best part of this episode was definitely Chris coming down with baby fever, grabbing the bag of clothes from the new mom and saying “I’ve made a huge mistake.” I love me some Arrested Development references.
30 Rock – The way I watch 30 Rock is not really for the stories, but for the jokes/characters. That said, let me list the jokes/character moments I liked: The return of Dennis Duffy, subway hero and beeper king of New York; Liz yelling out the window for Meghan; the priest at St. Patrick’s trying to keep things light by telling knock-knock jokes; Hazel wondering if 70 is a low IQ score; the zoom over the game board, à la Game of Thrones. Finally, did anyone else feel like this episode came out of order, like it should have come before Kenneth got his job at Standards and Practices? My assumption is that they moved things around to coincide with the holidays. But to me, it felt like a little bit of a backtrack.
Awake – This was probably the weakest of the three episodes so far, mostly because it relied so heavily on the case/procedural elements of the show. That element is clearly what the writers are shakiest on, and it kind of shows. Surprisingly, they are best at the stuff that seems the hardest, which is keeping the two worlds in contact, but also distinct. Sure, I would like it if the two worlds were a little bit sharper, more obviously different, but I’m enjoying the interplay, the way that they sustain each other even while they plainly can’t coexist forever. I think the part where Michael has to take sleeping pills in order to jump worlds is evidence of that. He can’t have so many balls in the air. In addition to all that, I haven’t said enough about Laura Allen who plays Hannah, Michael’s wife. She was on the egregiously short-lived Terriers (And she was pretty brilliant there. She definitely made me cry a few times) so I shouldn’t be surprised that she’s so good here. However, I didn’t really notice it until her speech about Rex at the teen center. What a great scene. Some might argue that it was a little melodramatic, but on this show, a show about grief and recovery, I thought it was quite appropriate. Continuing on the theme of last week, you could actually see Hannah’s character healing, moving on, being able to remember her son without pain. Very well done on the actor’s and showrunner’s parts.
See you next Saturday with another review,
Mary
Mary the TV Maven 