February 26 – March 3: TV Week in Review

“Issue number one is the first issue that we are going to talk about”

Parks and Recreation:
The past few episodes of Parks and Rec have been good, but not stellar. (See: “Bowling for Votes” “Operation Ann” or “Sweet Sixteen”) The problem is that I think I’ve come to expect perhaps too much from the show, which often means that I’m slightly disappointed.  But then an episode like “Campaign Shake-Up” comes along, and I realize that my high expectations are not unfounded.  The show and its writers honestly have the ability to produce awesome television.  Besides some nit-picky things that I will get to later, this episode was a nearly perfect half hour.

The Impression That I Get…: NBC’s Awake

In the next few weeks, there are some midseason replacement shows that are premiering.  Rather than waiting until the weekly review, I thought I would do a first impressions post.  In general, I give a show three episodes to impress me. Sometimes the show gets cancelled before then (RIP Lone Star, I loved you once). Sometimes the show is so horrible, I never want to go back after the first episode (Whitney, I’m looking at you).

This week, we have a new show on NBC called Awake.  Before watching it, I thought the premise was intriguing and the cast pretty impressive (minus Wilmer Valderrama, who I can’t take seriously no matter how many legit shows he guests on).  But it’s also on NBC, so it has a high probability of being a load of crap.