Week in Review, Mar 8 to 14

Seeing as I was busy skiing in the mountains for the last half of this week, I didn't have much in the way of free time to do anything. Just catching up on the television I missed while in Alberta was time consuming enough.

The Week in Television

Monday, March 8th
Loved: Chuck (3x9)
Liked: The Big Bang Theory (3x17), How I Met Your Mother (5x17)

"Chuck Versus the Beard" was an awesome episode, changing up the series in ways I did not see coming. I've always been iffy with Morgan, liking him some times, finding him annoying other times, but I'm excited about the possibilities for Chuck's best friend now.

The Big Bang Theory's "The Precious Fragmentation" was an okay episode. In theory, a The Lord of the Rings themed episode should have been an automatic winner with me, but the jokes were mostly stale and predictable.

"Of Course" was a much better How I Met Your Mother episode than the past few, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. It finally provided some fallout from the Barney and Robin relationship (late is better than never), and it had some great moments with Ted's "super date" song and the recurring ridiculousness of the "bang, bang, bangity, bang" song. But the resolution of Jennifer Lopez's character's storyline was frankly stupid.

Tuesday, March 9th
Loved: Lost (6x7)

"Dr. Linus" was a fantastic episode of Lost. But Ben has always been one of my favourite characters, so it's not too surprising that I would love this one. Everything about this episode worked, including the extremely unlikely coincidence of Alexandra Rousseau being alt-reality Ben's star pupil, giving him a second chance at redemption. In the island reality, there was more good material with Ben choosing his side, but the highlight for me was Miles' hilarious and unexpected call-back to Nikki and Paulo. The Nikki and Paulo flashback episode in season three was a contentious one with fans, but it is actually one of my favourites.

Wednesday, March 10th
Liked: Modern Family (1x17)

"Truth Be Told" was an average Modern Family episode. The biggest laughs came from the usual sources (Phil, Manny, Alex, Cameron), and the individual stories were thematically linked to the title. I don't mean to sound negative, though, as an average Modern Family episode is better than the best of most family sitcoms.

Thursday, March 11th
Liked: 30 Rock(4x14), The Office (6x19), Parks and Recreation (2x18)
Meh: Survivor (20x5)

Parks and Recreation's "The Possum" had some hilarious moments and some stupid moments. The depiction of the Animal Control department was terrific and any scenes involving Andy or Ron were great, but April and Tom were a little misused at times.

I wasn't a huge fan of The Office's "St. Patrick's Day." It just didn't add up to much, despite oodles of potential. I appreciated the return of some fun Dwight and Jim rivalry, Andy and Erin were cute as ever, and Michael surprisingly managed to be an effective boss in the end, but this was the least (and last?) of Kathy Bates' appearances, and the laughs were pretty minimal throughout.

I love that 30 Rock managed to get even more comedy out of Liz's dentist visit with "Future Husband." The rest of the episode didn't do much for me, other than make me laugh repeatedly at all the stupid shit that was going down.

After last week's awesome blindside, this week's Survivor sucked balls. Dammit, Heroes, WTF?

Friday, March 12th
Loved: Spartacus (1x8)
Liked: Caprica (1x7), The Ricky Gervais Show (1x4)

Caprica's "The Imperfections of Memory" was an important episode for story/plot maneuvering and development, but the episode on its own was somewhat boring and uneventful until the very last line of dialogue. I think that this episode would play much better in a marathon than as the weekly fix.

"Mark of the Brotherhood" was another strong Spartacus episode, firmly establishing Spartacus as the bad-ass gladiator champion and finally bringing Crixus back into the fold. Also important: Ilythia stepped up her game, Ashur's loyalty was tested, and Varro reacted poorly to his wife's news from last week.

It is hard to believe that Karl Pilkington is a real person. Goddamn.

Sunday, March 14th
Liked: The Amazing Race (16x5)

It is hilarious that something as straightforward and easy as Morse Code took out asshole Joe. The cops are idiots that have somehow finished first twice in a row (but, if the cowboys can do it, anyone can), and delivered the WTF line of the night when they nonsensically compared the impressive war simulation to their detective work, but using the U-Turn on Joe and Heidi was an awesomely effective move.