Week in Review, Feb 22 to 28

Although I did play some Mass Effect 2 this week, it wasn't much, and I didn't accomplish anything of note, so it's all TV in this Week in Review.

The Week in Television

I watched a lot of Olympics events this week, much more than I did during the first week. I got sucked into the Canadian hockey drama, as well as curling and short-track speed skating.

When I wasn't watching the Olympics or the few series below that dared air opposite the Olympics, I was watching Torchwood. The show has grown on me a lot, improving significantly from a very rocky first five or so episodes. It's a much more adult series than Doctor Who, often surprising me with language and themes I didn't expect to see in the Doctor Who universe. The characters are the most important element here, much more so than the stories, and I have developed an attachment to every member of the main cast. The cheese factor I mentioned last week, most exemplified by "Cyberwoman," my least favourite episode of the series so far, has mostly subsided. The storylines improved as the Cardiff Rift, Torchwood's version of Buffy's Hellmouth, was explored with more detail, and the first season ended much stronger than it had begun, even though the series didn't have nearly the budget it would have needed to do its final twist justice. Early into the second season, the series seems stronger than ever, with tighter storytelling and interesting character development. I'm sad now that there are only two and a half seasons of Torchwood to watch.

Tuesday, February 23rd
Loved: Lost (6x5)

"Lighthouse" wasn't quite as good as last week's Lost, but Jack episodes are never as good as Locke episodes. There were some bones thrown to fans to say, "Yeah, we remember stuff from the first season," but the main revelation of this episode felt a little redundant after last week. It was still very entertaining, particularly thanks to some great lines from Hurley, and was obviously an episode about moving pieces around to setup a bigger payoff in the coming episodes. The flash-sideways storyline could have been a problem, what with introducing a new character and all, but it was actually quite emotionally effective.

Thursday, February 25th
Liked: Survivor (20x3)

I wonder if it was Boston Rob's idea to put Randy up against James--such a hilariously absurd match-up. This season's trend of only having a single challenge in each episode is new to me, but it seems so far to be a good thing, giving more screen time to the machinations of the players. One thing I've come to expect from Survivor definitely hasn't changed: the editors still make it obvious which tribe is going to lose the immunity challenge by giving that tribe much more screen time before the challenge.

Friday, February 26th
Loved: Spartacus (1x6)
Liked: Caprica (1x5), The Ricky Gervais Show (1x2)

"There is Another Sky" introduced a new area of V-world to Caprica and spent most of its running time with Tamara Adama, a character that I had previously thought would be a minor player at best. And she was pretty awesome, developing Neo-like powers and kicking all kinds of ass. Outside of V-world, the Adama family came together for an interesting ritual, and Zoe was forced by her dad to rip her own arm off in the episode's best scene.

"Delicate Things" was another kick-ass episode of Spartacus: Blood and Sand. This show is really bringing it now. The political machinations took an ugly turn last week, and that element of the show reached new heights of ugliness in this episode. Even good-guy Spartacus was lying his ass off and manipulating events to his purposes this week. In the end, Batiatus still managed to win with the dirtiest betrayal of all. And, holy hell, that bath scene...

I forgot to mention the premiere of the animated The Ricky Gervais Show last week. As someone that has not listened to the podcasts that this show is regurgitating (now with visuals!), I am greatly enjoying my first exposure to the inanity of Karl Pilkington. The second episode was not quite as genius as the first, but there was still copious amounts of funny.

Saturday, February 27th
Liked: Legend of the Seeker (2x13)

"Princess" was a strangely amusing episode of Legend of the Seeker, even though the setup and plot were completely absurd. This was another standalone episode, but the stalling on the Stone of Tears story wasn't quite as blatant as last week. The focus again this week was on Cara, but in a goofy way this time, and Tabrett Bethell actually brought the comedy like a pro. And the return of Nicci was welcome, although the new actress was awkward in the role.

Sunday, February 28th
Liked: The Amazing Race (16x3)

It amazed me how many teams had trouble with the "Horse Sense" Detour in this week's Amazing Race. Best of all was Joe, who thought he had it in the bag because his watch has a compass on it, but then failed miserably to understand the challenge. The cowboys continued to impress despite themselves. Jeff had the line of the night with "We definitely shouldn't reproduce," after failing to read his clue properly. And I certainly won't miss the Philiminated team who thought simply being moms made them special for some reason.

Shapin' Up 2: Electri--uh, no.

Way back in September, my second post on this blog was about how motivated I was to get in shape and improve my physical appearance and health and all that nonsense. Yeah, that went well. I'm writing this blog post to try to motivate myself again to get out of a long funk.

It may just be the standard winter funk, but I think it's more than that this year. Because I don't work out in a gym ever, and instead typically rely on outdoor activity to get in shape, winter is often a period of laziness and weight gain. I tried to put an end to that pattern this year by purchasing some personal exercise equipment. That went about as well as it does for most people.

Ultimately, I really dislike exercising. It is so aimless and unsatisfying; so much effort for so little return. It would obviously be different if I found lifting weights or running to be fun, but I don't. (Maybe they're not supposed to be fun, maybe I'm missing the point, but then why do so many people do these activities every day?) I've gotten most of my winter exercise from shoveling snow, which is certainly not fun in the least. Things that are fun in the winter: sitting on the couch playing video games or watching TV, brewing and drinking beer, alpine skiing, and curling. Only the latter two involve any physical activity, I don't do either nearly enough, and it's not really that much exercise in either case. And the former two are how I spend most of my time, leading directly to weight gain, with the notable assistance in 2010 of bags of chips.

With the pending arrival of spring--what do you mean, March isn't spring yet?--in past years I would be itching to get out on my bike (or, if I go back 5 years, in-line skates) again. Unfortunately, I'm not feeling that urge this year. Ultimately, I don't find biking to be much fun either; but it's more fun than running, at least. Biking to and from work is just a good excuse to do something physical with a purpose. (I also save a tiny amount of money by not driving my car.) In the same way as I'd rather go for a long walk to visit Best Buy than just go for a long walk, having a destination for my biking makes it feel less aimless and unsatisfying. But it's still not really fun. At this point, I honestly don't think I'll be biking to work much this summer. I have better, lazier things to do with the hour of my life I'll save each day.

By writing that last sentence down in this blog post, I'm trying to convince myself that it is the stupidest thing I could possibly think. I'd take one more hour of video gaming over a healthier lifestyle and improved self image/esteem and general well-being? God, I hope not.

At least when I was married, I felt motivated to exercise to keep up with my wife's weight loss. After she left, I initially felt motivated to exercise to try to look my best for any future prospects. Fun didn't matter. I had a purpose.

For the first few months after separation, I was desperately searching for someone to replace my wife. I needed to feel like there was still hope for me and relationships. I'm almost completely over that feeling now. Three months of online dating was enough to destroy any hope. If there's someone out there that fits the admittedly restrictive criteria of what I am looking for, she's certainly not involved in the Regina online dating scene at this time. And I have my doubts that she ever will be. It seems like all the single women are single for a good reason.

And I'm probably a single man for a good reason. The more time I spend by myself, the less I have to offer someone else. My house is now one-third a home, one-third a brewery, and one-third an animal playhouse. (Well, to be fair, it was always one-third an animal playhouse.) I'm not saying I don't like it that way, because I do. But would someone else?--doubt it. Other than the empty half of a king bed, there isn't any room in my house for another person. I'm starting to feel the same way about my life in general.

Okay, that was a bit of a divergence from the topic at hand. The point of the past few paragraphs was to say that I don't see myself dating anyone any time soon, so there's no motivation to exercise to look my best for that purpose. (In my year in review blog post, I mentioned possibly joining some clubs or something to expand my social circle. Maybe later this year?) I need to motivate myself to exercise for myself, which is really hard when most of me would rather just play video games; thus the existence of this blog post.

I do care about living a healthy lifestyle. Other than the bags of chips, I eat reasonably well. (I used to eat bags of candy instead of bags of chips, so it's possibly a net zero situation, anyway. My teeth are happier about the current arrangement, though.) Lots of fruits and vegetables. Whole wheat/grain everything. Lots of protein. Most importantly, a reasonable overall calorie intake. I know this because I haven't gained much weight despite sitting on my ass for three straight months. If I wasn't drinking beer like it was water, especially on Saturdays, I wouldn't be concerned about my health at all.

It's probably been a year since I last saw a doctor, so another visit is likely a good idea. I had a completely clean bill of health last time, but the heavy drinking in 2009 may have something to say about that. There's also a pressing issue of risk factors for colon cancer that needs to be addressed. Fun!

They ("They") say you need 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day to stay healthy. I'm obviously well below that level. My thumbs have been getting a pretty good workout lately, but the rest of my body must be suffering. Well, probably not. This has not been an unusually lazy winter by any means. My main concern is not really with how lazy I've been through the cold months this year (although I am disappointed with myself because this year was supposed to be different), but with how I'm thus far lacking any urge to hop on my bike in spring. Maybe I'm getting worried way too early. There's still tons of snow on the ground. Maybe this blog post is premature. But, hey, that's my prerogative.

Also, I'm once again backing away slowly from any plans to run a half-marathon this year. As much as I'd like to just do it so I could say I had done it, I really dislike running--so why would I want to train to be a runner? I had hoped to get my stamina up with some regular exercise through the winter, but we already know that didn't happen, so here I am reset to zero again.

Rather than thinking about half-marathons that I'll never be ready for, maybe I should be looking at getting back into biking shape for something like the MS Bike Tour. The two MS Bike Tours I participated in in 2003 and 2004 were easily the most fun I ever had doing strenuous physical activity, despite how not fun biking is most of the time. The fundraising is annoying, but I can skip that by simply donating the minimum amount to myself. (Yeah, that's right, I'm a terrible human being for thinking about participating in a charity event but not putting any effort into the charity part.) So, anyway, that's something for me to think about, anyway. I'd need to sucker someone into joining me, though, because the previous events were mostly fun thanks to those that biked with me.

So, there, I guess that's a goal. Having a goal is the first step toward motivation. I need to get off my couch and start doing something for my well-being soon.

About Me - Browncoat and Whedonite

There are numerous TV writers that I respect immensely, including but not limited to J.J. Abrams (Felicity, Alias, Lost, Fringe), Tim Minear (Lois & Clark, The X-Files, Angel, Firefly, Wonderfalls, Dollhouse), Ronald D. Moore (Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica), Carlton Cuse (Brisco County, Lost), Bryan Fuller (Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies) and Ira Steven Behr (Star Trek, The 4400), but TV writing does not get any better than the work of Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy, Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse. The first three of these series are three of my favourite TV series of all time.

And it is no coincidence that many of my favourite episodes of these series were penned by Joss himself (and often directed by as well), except for Angel where it was more of Tim Minear's show ("Are You Now or Have You Ever Been," "Reprise," "Lullaby," "Home"). From Buffy, there's game-changer "Innocence," the awesome "Becoming" two-parter, the silent "Hush," the devastating "The Body," and brilliant musical "Once More, with Feeling." From Angel, there's the hilarious "Spin the Bottle" and the shocking "A Hole in the World." From Firefly, there's the deceptive "Our Mrs. Reynolds," the philosophical series finale "Objects in Space," and the terrific feature film Serenity. From Dollhouse, there's game-changer "Man on the Street" and the "I can't believe Fox never aired this episode!" genius of "Epitaph One."

Joss Whedon's fans, most much more fanatic than I am, refer to themselves as Whedonites. Browncoat is a more specific label for fans of the short-lived Firefly series. There are no specific labels for fans of Buffy or Angel, otherwise they would have also been listed in my About Me.

My interest in Joss Whedon's work obviously started with Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. Not so much the movie (1992). Although the movie was penned by Joss, the director had a different vision than the writer, and the end result was a silly, inconsequential film. When Joss was given the chance to bring his vision for Buffy to the small screen in 1997, I don't think anyone really believed it would be much better. Including me. I initially had no interest in a series based on that silly movie.

I was an active member of a different but similar show's online fandom (more details in a future About Me), and word of mouth for Buffy the series was very strong. And through channel surfing during the summer months when I was at home and actually had cable (I had no cable in university--and yeah, that fucking sucked!), I would occasionally catch an episode on YTV. And it seemed way better than I expected.

Prior to collecting TV series on DVD (and now Blu-ray), I used to collect series on VHS. Unfortunately, the pattern for TV series on VHS was two episodes per tape, three tapes per set, and a "Best of" strategy for which episodes were chosen. Until the DVD sets were released, there were actually several episodes in the first and early second seasons of Buffy that I had never seen. (There was no option for downloading TV episodes at this time. You actually had to try to catch an episode in rerun if you missed it the first time.)

I finally started watching Buffy as it aired (still on YTV--YTV later regretted carrying the series, once they realized that Buffy wasn't a kids show) late in its second season, coincidentally at the height of the series' run. To this day, I have yet to see a TV series match the quality of the Angelus arc of Buffy season two. A few series have come close (Angel's Darla arc, Battlestar Galactica's and Dexter's first seasons), but "Surprise" through "Becoming" is simply TV at its best. (It should go without saying that all of this is personal preference.)

But it is not just the great dramatic arc stories and threatening "big bad"s that made Buffy a terrific show. One of the best things about Buffy was how damn funny it was. Joss's dialogue was superbly witty and clever (too clever, for some), and some of show's Valley girl phrasing still finds its way onto my tongue at times.

At the end of Buffy's third season, the character of Angel was spun-off into his own series. The Space Channel aired Angel in Canada, instead of YTV, since it was clearly not a kid's show in any way. Initially, I had no way to watch the new series (last year of university, still no cable, still sucked), so I again missed most of the first season until DVDs were released. Somehow I managed to catch the last episode of the first season at least, and that episode was absolutely fantastic.

Starting with the second season, I was watching and loving Angel as it aired. Much like Buffy's second season, Angel's second season featured some of the series' strongest episodes. In fact, early in the second season of Angel, I had already concluded that Angel was a superior show to Buffy. This remained true for the entire run of both series. Although Buffy had the best season of both series with its second season, Angel was much more consistently good throughout. Buffy's last two seasons are regrettably below par, albeit not without a spattering of excellent episodes. Anyway, both shows are so interlinked with crossover stories and characters that watching all episodes of both series is essential to the enjoyment of either.

In fall 2002, with Buffy in its final season and Angel in its second last, Joss Whedon brought another series to TV: the awesome Firely. If Firefly had lasted longer than its truncated 15 episodes, it's quite likely it would have gone down as my favourite TV series of all time. It certainly featured my favourite Joss Whedon character with Captain Malcolm Reynolds, marvelously depicted by Nathan Fillion. Mal Reynolds was hilarious and heroic, and as an added plus, an atheist (just like his creator). Firefly was treated poorly by the Fox network, aired out of order, stuck in a Friday death slot, and therefore struggled in the ratings. On DVD, the series flourished somehow, enough that Universal was willing to bank the creation of a movie. Serenity is an effective conclusion to the series, so thank you, Universal!

After Serenity, Joss Whedon took it a little easier for a few years. 2008's web series Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog was a fun musical comedy, and the DVD even features a brilliant musical commentary. In 2009, Joss strangely decided to try to launch another TV series on Fox, the network that fucked over Firefly, and although Dollhouse certainly got less screwed than Firefly, because it at least got two seasons and a finale, it still begs the question, "Why Fox?" Dollhouse is the least of Joss Whedon's series, but in typical Joss fashion, its second season was pretty fucking awesome. Goddamn, what would a second season of Firefly have been like?

Joss Whedon is not perfect, despite what some of his more ardent fans would have you believe. His feature film writing work has been spotty, although it's possible that his scripts (which I've never read) are better than the finished products. And, as previously mentioned, the last two seasons of Buffy were not that great. A fair bit of blame for that lies with interim showrunner Marti Noxon, but it was Joss who left her in charge of Buffy while he was busy working on Firefly. But nobody is perfect. Joss Whedon has had more hits than misses, by far, and that's all that really matters.

I certainly look forward to Joss Whedon's next project, whatever it is, wherever it is. I am unquestionably a fan for life. And I will continue to re-watch and enjoy Buffy, Angel, and Firefly for many years to come, while also reading the ongoing comics continuations of these three amazing TV series.

(Thanks, Olympics!--for giving me some background noise to blog to so I could complete this long overdue About Me post.)

Week in Review, Feb 15 to 21

The Week in Video Games

Lots more Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 this week. I completed my 30-hour second playthrough of Mass Effect on the Hardcore difficulty, beating the Pinnacle Station DLC for the first time, and then transferred my renegade character (ie. bad guy) into Mass Effect 2 to experience the impacts of the different moral choices. My first playthroughs of both Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 were with a paragon character (ie. good guy). It's funny that I often have a difficult time making the renegade choices, and almost always feel bad about making them afterward, even when I'm specifically playing that angle. There were a couple renegade choices in Mass Effect that I absolutely couldn't make. But, likewise, I didn't make all paragon choices in my first playthroughs. Most notably, the choice I made at the end of Mass Effect 2 on my paragon playthrough is considered the renegade choice. I felt it was the smarter choice to make for the story, so I didn't let my dominant alignment influence my decision. At the end of my ongoing renegade playthrough of Mass Effect 2, I will probably make the paragon choice in that moment, so I'll be able to experience the impact of both options in Mass Effect 3.

I love that Mass Effect 2 let me switch the class of my character at the beginning of the game, so I could play as a Vanguard this time instead of another Engineer. I've only ever played the original Mass Effect as an Engineer, although I will have to play as an Adept at some point to complete the Achievements. So far, I really miss the Engineer's attack drone, and am having a hard time getting used to the Vanguard's close combat attack style. But it's definitely fun to play the game in a completely different way, while also making all the different moral choices.

For "fun," I also simultaneously started up third playthroughs of each game with my original paragon character, but on the Insanity difficulty level. It's called Insanity for a reason. Mass Effect might be beatable on Insanity, with some patience and tenacity and strategy, but Mass Effect 2 has been completely ridiculous on Insanity so far. Thinking about some of the battles that are coming up in later missions, I've already convinced myself that it will be impossible to complete.

The Week in Television

With the Olympics providing me with some breather room from my typical weekly series, I had some time this week to try to catch up with a couple of BBC series, namely Torchwood and Merlin. While Merlin series two is actually showing some pretty significant improvement from series one, Torchwood so far has been pretty weak. Torchwood has the Doctor Who cheese factor, but without the wit and humour that makes Doctor Who's cheesiness enjoyable.

Tuesday, February 16th
Loved: Lost (6x4)

Locke episodes are typically above average for Lost, and "The Substitute" was no exception. The off-island Locke scenes were emotionally engaging and loaded with interesting unexpected character appearances. The on-island Not!Locke scenes were even better, with some fascinating revelations (still more new questions than answers, though), cool Smokey-vision, Sawyer being awesome, and the return of the numbers. Also: the weirdest damn funeral.

Thursday, February 18th
Liked: Survivor (20x2)

The best thing about all-star seasons of Survivor is how invested I get early on in the voting. In a normal Survivor season, there isn't enough time to get to know the first few people to get the boot, so I don't care who goes at this stage. But there are a number of people that I want to see stick around in this all-star season of Survivor, so I'm actually nervous about who is going to get voted out each week. So far, so good. But some of my favourites are definitely in a shitty spot right now, unless the standard tribe shakeup comes soon.

Friday, February 19th
Loved: Spartacus (1x5)
Liked: Caprica (1x4)

"Shadow Games" was an excellent episode of Spartacus, easily the best to date. A slow, quiet build-up led to an amazing climax in the gladiatorial arena. Forcing bitter rivals Spartacus and Crixus to team up to fight the giant Theocles was brilliant. For a bonus, Batiatus went to a surprising place morally.

Caprica's "Gravedancing" was an okay episode, focusing on the not really all that interesting Graystones. A tense sequence with Sam and Amanda was easily the the highlight, although the Zoe dancing scene was memorably fucked up.

Saturday, February 20th
Liked: Legend of the Seeker (2x12)

Legend of the Seeker's "Hunger" was an obvious filler episode, even though the story primarily involved banelings. There were a number of questionable moments in the plotting, but the episode was otherwise pretty good.

Sunday, February 21st
Liked: The Amazing Race (16x2)

I spent most of Sunday watching the Olympics for the first time since the opening ceremonies, enjoying some curling, speed skating, ski-cross (pretty fucked up event, there), and hockey, but took an one hour break in the evening to watch this otherwise unremarkable episode of The Amazing Race. I am surprised by how much I like the cowboy team.

Week in Review, Feb 8 to 14

The Week in Video Games

My original plan for this week was to take a break from video gaming. That lasted a couple of days until I found myself with tons of free time and no plan for what to do with it.

So, as I thought I would last week, I started a second playthrough of Mass Effect. The original: complete with awesome but flawed Mako, complicated inventory system, slow elevators, and a confusing cover system. I'm playing a New Game +, which means you get to use your character from your first playthrough when you start over again, keeping your experience level and your equipment. You'd think that would be super easy, but I'm also playing on the Hardcore difficulty level this time around. My first playthrough of the original Mass Effect apparently took me 34 hours. I am now just under 20 hours into playthrough two.

I also started playing Tales of Monkey Island episode two, The Siege of Spinner Cay, this week. I have only put about an hour into the game so far, but it seems very similar to episode one in structure, and that's mostly a good thing. I love me some point & click adventuring. But at the same time, these games require so much trial and error to solve most of the puzzles that they are a little too frustrating to play than my current mood will tolerate.

The Week in Television

With the Olympics now hogging TV (not that I don't enjoy watching the Olympics every once in a while), next week's Week in Television will be ridiculously sparse. But that's next week. This week was pretty packed. And it was a week of Valentine's Day episodes! Great! I loved being reminded every day this week that a shitty Valentine's Day was coming...

Monday, February 8th
Loved: Chuck (3x7)
Liked: The Big Bang Theory (3x15)
Meh: Heroes (4x19), How I Met Your Mother (5x15)

Heroes's uneven and uneventful fourth season came to an end this week with the wholly unremarkable "Brave New World," possibly the weakest season finale in a series that is notorious for having weak season finales. Tim Kring, you fucking suck. The only plotline that could be called good in this episode was the bittersweet resolution of the Hiro and Charlie relationship. The resolution to the season long carnival storyline is only deserving of a "That's it?!?" I think I might just be able to say "I'm fucking done with this show" if it manages to somehow get a fifth season in the fall.

There was a lot to love about this week's "Chuck Versus the Mask," beginning with some Mission Impossible style silly spy stuff and ending with some major relationship shake-ups. I am enjoying Chuck and Hannah together much more than I thought possible.

How I Met Your Mother had its second straight off week with "Rabbit or Duck," an episode that had one good moment with a funny group argument about whether rabbits or ducks are better, and numerous awful moments, mostly involving Robin or the fallout from Barney appearing on TV during the Super Bowl holding up a sign with his phone number on it. Two weeks in a row of man-whore Barney, really?

"The Large Hadron Collision" was a pretty good The Big Bang Theory Valentine's themed episode. The show has been overdoing the crazy Sheldon lately, and this episode still had a big chunk of crazy Sheldon, but there was more balance with Leonard and Penny this week. And I love that, in the end, it was poor lonely Raj that got to join Leonard on his trip.

Tuesday, February 9th
Liked: Lost (6x3)

Lost's obligatory early season Kate episode, "What Kate Does," was a bit of a letdown from the premiere, but on the scale of Kate episodes was actually one of the better ones. The advantage this episode had over past Kate episodes was the presence of the long missing (and missed) Claire. Also unusually good this week: Jack.

Wednesday, February 10th
Liked: Modern Family (1x15)

Modern Family's "My Funky Valentine" had one hilarious storyline (Claire and Phil roleplaying), one okay storyline (Mitchell, Cameron, and the always awesome Manny), and one didn't go anywhere storyline (Jay and Gloria seeing a comedy show). So, overall, pretty good.

Thursday, February 11th
Loved: 30 Rock (4x13), Parks and Recreation (2x16), The Office (6x16)
Liked: Survivor (20x1)

All it took to lure me back to Survivor was another all-stars season, this time the silly "Heroes vs. Villains." I skipped out on seasons 18 and 19 after watching the first 17, but I really don't think I missed much. Especially since Coach and Russell, the only cast members that were memorable from those seasons, are on the Villains team this season. The first episode of this 20th season, "Slay Everyone, Trust No One," was very entertaining, getting a lot of mileage out of all of the strong personalities that returned for this season. The highlight for me was when Boston Rob, always a favourite of mine, made fire from scratch. Who needs flint? Not Boston Rob. Also great: James being James, Tom kicking ass, Jerri & Coach flirting, and Amanda's bikini. Not so good: was Russell always this annoyingly delusional? Fuck that guy.

I'm pretty sure that this is the first week since I started these weekly reviews that all three NBC Thursday comedies earned the Loved tag. I guess Valentine's Day is great inspiration for comedy.

Maybe it's lowered expectations from a below average season, but "Manager and Salesman" was an excellent The Office episode. There was a lot to love and nothing that I disliked. Seeing Jim in Michael's office and Michael at Jim's desk was a highlight of the season. The Valentine's aspect was a cute side story involving clueless Andy and Erin that also made the best use of Kelly in a long time (probably because Mindy Kaling was the writer).

"Anna Howard Shaw Day" was the best 30 Rock episode in a long time for me. The entire episode was a completely cynical and hilarious look at Valentine's Day, and Liz's episode ending hallucinations of her old boyfriends (Dennis!) and Jon Bonjovi made it even better. And I even enjoyed crazy Jenna's storyline this week, which is amazing.

Parks and Recreation's "Galentine's Day" was the weakest of the three comedies this week, but it was still very good with numerous great moments. I just love everything involving Andy and April.

Friday, February 12th
Liked: Spartacus (1x4)

Spartacus's "The Thing in the Pit" was quite strong throughout, offering an intense and disturbing look at underground pit fighting, and featuring some of the most gruesome sequences I have ever seen... Yikes! This episode marks the turning point for me from watching this show because it had interesting potential to watching because I actually really like it.

Saturday, February 13th
Liked: Legend of the Seeker (2x11)

Legend of the Seeker went to the ol' "character split into two" well (best exemplified by Buffy's "The Replacement") with "Torn," and it actually worked quite well. Key to the success: choosing to split Kahlan and providing a believable justification for the two distinct personalities of the new Kahlans. This episode also took the series to Aydindril for the first time--and that was long overdue!

Sunday, February 14th
Liked: The Amazing Race (16x1)

The 16th season of The Amazing Race started strong with "Nanna is Kickin' Your Butt!" There are not many bland teams this season, so there's no risk of all of the interesting teams losing out early as has happened in the past couple of seasons, and there were a surprising number of amusing mistakes made for a first leg. This might just be the stupidest cast of all time. Plus, I'm pretty sure that this was the first time that a team wasn't able to even finish the first leg.

Week in Review, Feb 1 to 7

The Week in Video Games

I finished Mass Effect 2 this week after 42 hours of gameplay. That includes the completion of all optional quests (or at least all that I found). Like the original Mass Effect, the ending sequence was impressively cinematic and left me begging for more. In terms of pure storytelling, I prefer Mass Effect's surprise-packed conclusion, but Mass Effect 2 definitely nailed the drama and intensity of a foolhardy suicide mission. Since you spend most of Mass Effect 2's playtime bonding with your crew and earning their loyalty, I appreciated how you were able to make use of all of them in the final mission, much like Dragon Age's conclusion. That's an element that Mass Effect never had. Also improved from Mass Effect: being able to get almost all of the achievements in one playthrough, instead of requiring FOUR. And, despite the simplification of the RPG elements and the loss of the planet exploration, it is also hard to argue that Mass Effect 2 doesn't kick the shit out of the gameplay of the original.

There are a lot of things that are impressive about Mass Effect 2, but the aspect that I think is most interesting and most promising for Mass Effect 3 is how many of the choices made in Mass Effect affected events in Mass Effect 2. This concept is so brilliant that it makes me want to go back and play through Mass Effect again to make different choices and see how that carries into Mass Effect 2. None of these changes were hugely significant in the big scheme of things, but they affected the details. I can't even imagine playing Mass Effect 2 without having played Mass Effect; the callbacks are some of the best and most satisfying moments. And, looking forward to Mass Effect 3, there is a choice made at the end of Mass Effect 2 that should have major consequences on the coming war, so I can't wait to see how that plays out.

Already this year I have taken two days off from work for the sole purpose of playing video games, one day for Dragon Age (and then a genuine sick day a week later to finish it off) and one day to finish off Mass Effect 2. This is only noteworthy because I can't remember the last time before 2010 that I took a day off to specifically play video games. In fact, I barely played video games at all in the year 2009, excepting music games, work coffee-breaks (fuck yeah!), and the post-Christmas period. All it takes to flip my switch from casual gamer to hardcore gamer is Bioware releasing two masterpieces in three months. It'll be interesting to see where my renewed video game interest takes me for the rest of this year without new Bioware games to suck me in. Well, for starters, I definitely have to revisit Mass Effect 1...

The Week in Television

Monday, February 1st
Liked: The Big Bang Theory (3x14), Chuck (3x6)
Meh: Heroes (4x18), How I Met Your Mother (5x14)

"Chuck Versus Nacho Sampler" was a bit disappointing in execution considering the excellent premise of Chuck having to be Sarah to his own Chuck. It's hard to explain what was wrong with it, but I think I just didn't buy into the character of Manoosh at all. I did, however, really enjoy Morgan's storyline this week, especially his shift from Hannah stalker to Chuck stalker due to some suspicious activities.

Last week's Heroes was pretty good and the series seemed to have good momentum heading into the final two episodes of the season. Ha!--I should have known better. "The Wall" squandered all of that potential by focusing on some filler nonsense involving Peter and Sylar and a mental brick wall. And despite the fact that Noah is my favourite character on the show, his retcon flashbacks in this episode were bizarrely irrelevant.

The Big Bang Theory's "The Einstein Approximation" was another over-the-top Sheldon episode, but this one worked better for me than the last because this time his obsession was a difficult physics problem. Also, Penny's reactions to Sheldon's antics were much funnier, and there was a hilarious scene with Bernadette playing stern mother.

How I Met Your Mother's "The Perfect Week" was an okay episode. It was well structured and the baseball metaphor wasn't lost on me, but it also wasn't particularly funny. The jokes were very hit and miss this week.

Tuesday, February 2nd
Loved: Lost (6x1/6x2)

The premiere of Lost's final season was undoubtedly the TV highlight of the week, both in terms of anticipation and delivery. It's hard to talk about "LA X" without some minor spoilers, so spoiler alert! If you don't want spoilers, skip the next two paragraphs entirely. And, what are you waiting for? Watch the damn episode already! It's fucking great!

When the screen flashed white at the end of the fifth season, the big question for fans of Lost was whether the writers of the show would have the guts to push the big flashing reset button for the entire series going into the final season. And the answer is a surprisingly genius "Yes and no." Bravo, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof! Bravo! When the flashback structure of the first three seasons became dull, season four's flashforward structure rejuvenated the series. Season five cleverly relied on time travel for most of its flashes. And now season six is flashing to an alternate timeline. In retrospect, that is an obvious solution to the season five finale, but I didn't see it coming.

So, anyway, the structure and flash-parallels of this premiere episode were the highlight, but those weren't the only good things about it. We met another group of Others that seem to know more about what's going on with the island than Ben's group did. We got a little bit more information about Jacob and Richard and Not!Locke. And in the episode's biggest "answer," we got definitive proof of the smoke monster's identity. Awesome!

Wednesday, February 3rd
Liked: Modern Family (1x14)

Modern Family's "Moon Landing" had some of the spark of my favourite episode, "Fizbo," in the way that a number of disparate elements built to a hilarious pay-off in Claire and Phil's storyline. The other two storylines in this episode featured new character pairings, which was a nice change, with Jay and Cameron's storyline hitting its mark but Mitchell and Gloria's storyline feeling like filler.

Thursday, February 4th
Loved: Fringe (2x15)
Liked: 30 Rock (4x12), Parks and Recreation (2x15), The Office (6x15)

I enjoyed most of The Office's inconsistent "Sabre," especially Andy and Erin's song tribute to their new employer, unsafe "Scissor me!" scissor-tossing, and Michael's visit to the newly unemployed David Wallace's house. Less good: Jim and Pam unsuccessfully trying to get their kid into the best daycare in town.

Parks and Recreation had another solid week with "Sweetums." I laughed loudly at the brief visit to the library (nice callback!) and how Tom dealt with moving his stuff. Also very good: the progress on April and Andy. Less good: the main plot dealing with the evil candy company was only intermittently funny, and the silly town meeting didn't help.

30 Rock's "Verna" was my least favourite of the Thursday comedies this week, focusing as it did on Jenna and her annoying mother, but there were still plenty of good laughs to be had, mostly from Liz and Frank and their brief time as roommates.

I complained last week that Fringe needed to get back to the alternate universe storyline already, and this week they delivered--just in time for another long hiatus. (Fuck you, Fox.) "Jacksonville" was an excellent and important episode, establishing new rules for interaction with the alternate universe and reestablishing Olivia's special powers. I saw the ending coming from the first moment Walter mentioned the glimmer, but that didn't make it any less awesome.

Friday, February 5th
Liked: Caprica (1x3), Spartacus (1x3)

"Legends" was the first episode of Spartacus to actually make smart use of the over-the-top 300-style fight sequences by employing them primarily for the myth-based stories of various gladiators. The rest of the episode was quite similar to last week's in content and execution. The machinations and struggles of Batiatus and Lucretia are still the highlight of the series, although I am also enjoying the rivalry between Spartacus and Crixus.

With Mass Effect 2 out of the way, I had some spare time this weekend to catch up on Caprica. I wasn't a huge fan of the movie-length pilot, but it had enough interesting content and ideas--and, hey, it's the Battlestar Galactica universe!--to convince me to try the second episode. And "Rebirth" was quite good. At first, the dramatic conceit of Cylon Zoe appearing to the audience frequently as human Zoe was weird and distracting, but by the end of the episode, I was enjoying the creepy visuals this conceit brilliantly leads to. The second episode also introduced two enjoyable new characters, gave us our first look at the cool as shit opening titles, and ended with the shit hitting the fan--already! This week's third Caprica episode, "Reins of a Waterfall," continued that shit hitting the fan motif. Plus, more new characters and an entertaining look at Caprica's media circus.