Week in Review, Apr 19 to 25

Friday's weather did not cooperate with my birthday plan of sitting outside and reading a book, and Sunday was even worse, so instead I sat inside and wrapped Chuck season two. Love that season finale! In the next couple of days I will have to pick another show to kill time with, and I'm leaning towards finally watching the critically acclaimed Breaking Bad.

I have a lot of downloaded video game content for Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age and Assassin's Creed II that I've yet to play, mostly to avoid getting sucked back into those worlds and not have any time left for the real world. Instead, I've put a few hours into The Longest Journey, a recent Good Old Games purchase. Tales of Monkey Island got me back into the point and click adventure gaming mood, and I have been curious about The Longest Journey for nearly 10 years, so it's interesting to finally play it.

And that's about it for this week. Except for the multiple hours of TV I watched, of course...

The Week in Television

Monday, April 19th
Liked: How I Met Your Mother (5x20)

"Home Wreckers" was the most consequential episode of How I Met Your Mother since episode 100 way back in January, so that was nice to see, but unfortunately the jokes were extremely hit or miss. Ultimately, thanks to the return of the series' heart, and a great final scene, I consider it a winner overall.

Tuesday, April 20th
Loved: Lost (6x13)
Liked: Glee (1x15)

With "The Last Recruit," Lost successfully and seamlessly dropped the single-character focus of most of this season, and began tying up the various characters' flash-sideways storylines while also significantly forwarding the action on-island. The episode was completely enjoyable from beginning to end and it sucks that we have to wait two weeks for the next ...

I'm not a Madonna fan, so Glee's "The Power of Madonna" was never going to appeal to me as much as some. But I have to admit that the episode was well written (although rather heavy-handed in its misogynistic themes) and very well directed by series creator Ryan Murphy. Standout moments included an awesome parody of the "Vogue" video and the best all-time use of fucking awful song "Like a Virgin."

Wednesday, April 21st
Loved: South Park (14x6)

"Scott Tenorman Must Die" is one of my favourite episodes of South Park, so how could I not love "201," the Scott Tenorman enhanced continuation of the 200th episode extravaganza? It wasn't all good, however, as the line between censorship to make a humorous point and actual Comedy Central censorship is very unclear with this episode. I am very interested in seeing what bleeps remain in the DVD release of this episode.

Thursday, April 22nd
Loved: Fringe (2x19), Survivor (20x11)
Liked: 30 Rock (4x17/18), The Office (6x22)

Fringe is on a roll since its return from hiatus. "The Man From the Other Side" was a terrific mythology/arc episode, introducing a promising new villain with the yet unseen (but if you don't know who it is, you haven't been paying attention) Secretary. The impact this episode will have on the best relationship of the series, Peter and Walter of course, is yet to be felt, but I'm more excited about this series right now than I've ever been.

This week's Survivor was absolutely fantastic, as merge episodes often are, featuring the gutsiest tribal council move I can recall. If Parvati's decision to spread her two immunity idols out to her Villains tribe mates had not worked out so well, it could have fallen into the dumbest Survivor moves of all time territory, but she correctly read her opposition, specifically Amanda. JT cemented his idiot persona with his unflinching trust in good ol' boy Russell, and, shockingly, fucking Rupert was the only voice of reason on the Heroes side. With the balance of power now securely on the Villains side, the next few episodes will probably be boring as shit, but that's life with unscripted TV.

Once again, for the second time in two months, I posted this Week in Review without the Thursday comedies. So, The Office's "Secretary's Day" and 30 Rock's double shot of "Lee Marvin vs. Derek Jeter" and "Khonani" must have been forgettable, right? Actually, no, they were three pretty good episodes. (When I write these blog posts, I rely pretty heavily on what I wrote last week to remind me what shows I watch, and none of these shows were on last week.) In the case of The Office, I enjoyed Cookie Monster Kevin, but I wasn't a big fan of crazy Erin. And, as per usual, 30 Rock made me laugh repeatedly, but I'm at a loss to explain why.

Friday, April 23rd
Loved: Stargate Universe (1x14)
Liked: Party Down (2x1), The Ricky Gervais Show (1x9)

Stargate Universe's "Human" finally provided some backstory on the enigmatic Rush, humanizing him significantly with clever use of his memories. I could have done without the cave-in storyline, but I liked seeing Eli and Chloe together again and I appreciated the fact that the crew was not amazingly saved in the last second.

Along with Better Off Ted, Party Down was one of the best new comedies last year. Airing on Starz, like the also awesome Spartacus, Party Down is not well known, and I only know about it because of its significant production connections to the series Veronica Mars. The second season premiere, "Jackal Onassis Backstage Party," had some hilarious moments but was not one of the better episodes. Because this series relies rather heavily on improvisation in the same way as Curb Your Enthusiasm (ie. the writers propose scenarios and certain beats that must be hit, and then the actors go at it), it can be much more inconsistent than a cleverly written show like Better Off Ted, but there's room on TV for both types of comedy.

Saturday, April 24th
Loved: Doctor Who (5x4)
Liked: Legend of the Seeker (2x18)

"The Time of Angels" was an awesome episode of Doctor Who, bringing two of Steven Moffat's best creations, River Song and the Weeping Angels, back in fantastic ways. Matt Smith still rocks, and the rest of the cast hit all the right notes. Dialogue was fantastic throughout, set design and CGI was above par for Doctor Who, and it was part one of a two-parter, thus giving the story some time to breathe. There's a reason that most of the best new Whos are the two-parters.

"Walter" was a strange episode of Legend of the Seeker, to say the least. If Craig Parker wasn't so awesome, it probably would have crashed and burned, but other than wondering what the writers were thinking when they proposed this storyline as a part of the season's arc, I enjoyed this episode's goofiness. Next week's payoff of this silly nonsense will hopefully be much better.

Sunday, April 25th
Liked: The Amazing Race (16x10)

This week's Amazing Race featured the last of the non-elimination legs, saving the puzzle-challenged detectives this time, leaving (I think) only two legs left to the finish line. I'm still cheering for the cowboys and was happy to see them back on top of their game with this leg.