Week in Review, Mar 1 to 7

The Week in Video Games

I didn't do much gaming this week, but I did put a few hours into Telltale's Tales of Monkey Island series, completing Chapter 2 (The Siege of Spinner Cay) and starting Chapter 3 (Lair of the Leviathan). While I didn't enjoy Chapter 2 as much as I had enjoyed Chapter 1 when I played it way back in July, and had to sadly resort to a walkthrough for a couple of the trickier puzzles, it was still an entertaining and funny game with great dialogue throughout, and Chapter 3 seems like it will be even better based on what I've experienced so far. I like this concept of episodic gaming, and I wish I had been able to continue playing these chapters as they were released, but between July 7th (the release of Chapter 1) and August 20th (the release of Chapter 2), life interrupted. Now that I'm able to put Bioware's big games on the backburner, I should be able to get through the rest of the series in a few weeks.

The Week in Television

I stayed home for half of this week with the worst cold of my adult life, which gave me ample time to complete the BBC series catch-up I started two weeks ago. First, I watched the rest of the second and third (mini-series) seasons of Torchwood. And I pretty much loved all of it. There aren't many series that could make a multi-episode story arc revolving around a dead character work. There were a couple weak episodes in the second half of the second season, but the two-part season finale was terrific. The Children of Earth mini-series was even better. Bring on season four! Once I was done with Torchwood, I jumped back into the second season of Merlin. While I certainly could have done without the two-parter involving a farting troll queen (yeah), there were a number of quality episodes, and the darkness of the series was ramped up significantly. I was a little disappointed in the series' insistence on maintaining the status quo, which is actually unique for BBC series that I have watched (Torchwood and Doctor Who are certainly examples of the opposite), but there were some welcome developments with Morgana and the dragon at least. I will likely watch season three as it airs next fall, instead of saving it for another marathon, which is a good indication that I am more interesting in where the series is going now.

Monday, March 1st
Loved: The Big Bang Theory (3x16)
Liked: Chuck (3x8)
Meh: How I Met Your Mother (5x16)

"Chuck Versus the Fake Name" was not my favourite episode of this season, but it was still a typically entertaining and fun episode of Chuck. It was a little tough to buy Chuck's impressive thespian skills as he impersonated an assassin, but I loved the two mobsters he was working for. And I wasn't too pleased with an early break-up in one of the new relationships, but I'm hoping that was only a blip in a longer storyline. As an aside, I have recently started re-watching Chuck's first season, and I think I am appreciating the early episodes more now, knowing how good the show gets in its second season.

"The Excelsior Acquisition" was my favourite episode of The Big Bang Theory in a long while. It was consistently funny throughout, a quality that has been lacking in quite a few episodes this season, making good comedic use of all of the main cast. Pairing up Sheldon and Penny usually leads to good things, and this episode was definitely not an exception. And I loved Raj's Personal Soundtrack t-shirt (a great Thinkgeek product).

How I Met Your Mother has always had silly episodes like "Hooked," mediocre attempts to be a new Seinfeld with lame catch-phrases such as "on the hook" and "right now," but since I watched most of this series in a couple of days, these episodes would blend in with the good ones and be mostly forgotten. Watching on a week to week basis, these episodes just come off as dumb. For a show as normally concerned with continuity as this one, giving Ted a desperate "on the hook" co-worker out of the blue for the plot's sake was particularly glaring. And having Scooter show up as a lunch lady for the sole purpose of giving Lily and Marshall something to do in this episode wasn't much better.

Tuesday, March 2nd
Loved: Lost (6x6)

Lost brought the action with "Sundown," an awesomely dark Sayid episode. Sayid kicked some ass in both realities, trying his damnedest to kill Not!Locke, giving Keamy his second death in the series, and then viciously killing the leaders of the Temple Others. I also loved an early hand-to-hand fight between Sayid and Dogen. Even Ben was scared shitless of hardcore Sayid. Sides are being chosen for the island's war, and the coming battle is going to be awesome.

Wednesday, March 3rd
Liked: Modern Family (1x16)

"Fears" was a solid episode of Modern Family about, unsurprisingly, the characters' fears. Specifically, Manny's fear of roller-coasters, Haley's fear that she would fail her third driver's test, Alex's fear of not being asked to dance, Phil's fear of the dark and confined spaces, and Mitchell and Cameron's fear that their daughter's first word would be "Mommy." The biggest laughs of the episode, as per usual, followed any time Phil, Manny, Cameron, or Alex spoke.

Thursday, March 4th
Loved: The Office (6x17/18)
Liked: Parks and Recreation (2x17), Survivor (20x4)

Is it wrong that I felt bad for Coach during his emotional breakdown in this episode? It must be because I didn't see his first season, because I know the fan consensus of Coach is much more negative. However, he did completely undermine that empathy shortly afterward by ridiculously comparing himself to legends like King Arthur. And I certainly found Tyson's advice to him hilariously on-the-nose. As for the rest of this episode, it was actually nice to have two challenges again, the immunity idol hunts spiced up the game, and I absolutely loved the blindside at the end.

I'm so used to The Office not being on TV (due to its Olympics hiatus) that I forgot to review this week's episode when I first hit the post button. Anyway, to quickly throw some comments together: the hour-long "The Delivery" was quite good, one of my favourite episodes from this season. In particular, Dwight had some great moments, which has been sadly rare lately. Plus, Andy asking out Erin in the worst way possible was perfect. I also enjoyed this week's Parks and Recreation, with Ron hilariously winning a "Woman of the Year" award.

Friday, March 5th
Loved: Spartacus (1x7)
Liked: Caprica (1x6), The Ricky Gervais Show (1x3)

Spartacus's "Great and Unfortunate Things" was a critical episode for the series, because it had to give the main character a reason to continue fighting, and it was pretty successful in that regard. However, the best material in this episode centered around Doctore, first kicking Spartacus' ass for his actions last week, and then investigating Barca's freedom and Ashur's involvement. There were also some unexpected and depressing developments for Varro and Pietros, and a satisfying death-by-cliff for one particularly nasty gladiator.

"Know Thy Enemy" introduced a couple major villains to Caprica. Daniel's nemesis Tomas Vergis was particularly effective, providing some much needed tension in Daniel's storyline. Fanatic STO terrorist Barnabas (James Marsters!) didn't have as much screen time in this episode, but the promise for that character is also quite high. Also great this week: Philo's date with Zoe and Joe Adama trying to use a holoband. Caprica still hasn't quite knocked me over with an episode yet, but they are getting closer every week.

The Ricky Gervais show was more of the same this week, which is to say pretty damn hilarious. I'm almost tempted to listen to some "spoilers" by downloading the podcasts.

Sunday, March 7th
Liked: The Amazing Race (16x4)

Non-elimination legs are a necessary evil for The Amazing Race, to allow the show to get 12 legs out of 10 teams each season, and thus be as cost effective as it is possible for the most expensive and elaborate reality show on television to be. I still remember the good old days of the first couple of seasons, when during the opening credits of the show, Phil would actually give away whether an episode featured an elimination or non-elimination leg by saying "Who will be eliminated tonight?" or "Who will be eliminated next?" Now it's always "next." Anyway, I actually would have missed the idiotic bumbling of Team Big Brother if they had gone home this week, so I was relieved by this first non-elimination leg.

And, as I do every year, I also watched The Academy Awards, despite having seen so few of 2009's movies. (Quick tally: Star Trek, District 9, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Up, Avatar... that might be it. Fuck, I used to be a movie buff.) Or at least had it on in the background while finishing up this blog post. Pretty lacklustre show this year. Neil Patrick Harris' opening song was decent, but Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin bored with their opening mono--uh, dialogue? Tina Fey and Robert Downey Jr had the best moment of the entire show, by far--so far, anyway, since the show's not yet over as I'm posting this.