Week in Review, Mar 29 to Apr 4

The Week in Video Games

The only gaming I did this week outside of a little Rockband 2 was the few hours it took me to complete Tales of Monkey Island Chapter Five, "Rise of the Pirate God." This final chapter was as good as everything that came before it in most respects, especially the clever puzzles resulting from being able to switch between Zombie Guybrush and Ghost Guybrush in the latter half. Insult sword fighting made a far too brief appearance, all of the major characters played into the storyline in effective ways, and I really enjoyed the fact that you could never die in any of these games, instead entering sometimes hilarious endless loops of combat. My only complaint with this final chapter is that the ending cinematic was too abrupt and rather unsatisfying. I'll assume that the brief scene after the credits is the setup for Tales of Monkey Island 2, which: awesome!

The Week in Television

Monday, March 29th
Loved: Chuck (3x12)

"Chuck Versus the American Hero" was originally planned to be the penultimate episode for season three, until NBC extended the season with six more episodes, so it makes sense that it felt so much like part one of a season finale. Other than being slightly hampered by a low budget, everything about this episode was excellent, including Morgan, Awesome, and Casey teaming up to help Chuck win Sarah back, Chuck laying it all on the line with Sarah, and Shaw's turn to the dark side. The reset button is still looming, because the show can obviously never follow through with Chuck transferring to Rome, but I hope there are at least some changes that are permanent.

Tuesday, March 30th
Loved: Lost (6x10)

"The Package" was a good episode of Lost, moving pieces strategically around the board in the island storyline and answering some minor questions in the alternate universe storyline. Although their episodes have never had the twists and turns of some of the other major characters, I have always enjoyed the Jin and Sun episodes of past seasons, and this one was no different in that respect. And, most importantly, Desmond!

Wednesday, March 31st
Liked: Modern Family (1x19), South Park (14x3)

A few days after watching this week's South Park, "Medicinal Fried Chicken," my brother asked me what I thought about it, and I honestly couldn't remember what the episode was even about. I knew I had found it quite funny at the time, but my mind had blocked it out, possibly due to alcohol consumption prior to the viewing. As I remembered bits and pieces of it, slowly, I remembered certain elements pretty fondly, such as the sight gag of Randy bouncing around on his enlarged balls. The rest of the episode? Forgettable.

It would be easy to look at Modern Family's "Game Changer" as a pretty damn funny 30-minute iPad commercial. I didn't really see it that way, because I was glad they had Phil be obsessed with an actual product rather than make some gizmo up, and because Phil's interest in a product is the opposite of an endorsement to me. The non-iPad elements to the episode were also solid.

Thursday, April 1st
Loved: Fringe (2x16)
Liked: Survivor (20x8)

"Peter" was a terrific episode of Fringe, completely unique to the series, consisting almost entirely of flashbacks to Walter's past when Peter was a sick child. It may not have provided many new answers, instead simply confirming suspected answers, but complaining about that would be missing the point. This was an undeniably important episode for the series, arguably the best one to date, and I am excited for the rest of this season.

Son of a bitch! I knew Rob was going to be in trouble when Tyson voted himself out last week, but I hoped it would be a few more weeks before the shit would hit the fan. I fucking hate Russell so much. On the Heroes side, Colby's redemption arc felt almost like it was scripted by a Hollywood hack.

Friday, April 2nd
Loved: Spartacus (1x11)
Liked: Stargate Universe (1x11)

Spartacus's "Old Wounds" didn't quite have the wow factor of the previous few episodes, but it still had plenty of goodness, including some surprising plot developments involving Batiatus and Ashur, Crixus' return to glory, and Spartacus learning the truth about his wife's death. The next two weeks will be very interesting.

Stargate Universe returned for the second half of its first season with "Space," an episode that finally introduced a mysterious external threat to the crew with mostly positive results. I liked seeing the communication stones used for something other than repeatedly visiting Earth, and the resolution to the mid-season finale's cliffhanger was reasonable. This episode only really suffered because it's been so long since I've spent any time with these characters that I have sort of lost interest in them, and there weren't enough good character moments here to remind me what I liked about them originally.

Saturday, April 3rd
Loved: Doctor Who (5x1)

This was a strong week for TV, but the triumphant series return of Doctor Who trumped everything. "The Eleventh Hour" was my favourite Doctor Who episode in ages. There were some iffy plot mechanics (cell-phone viruses?), but the episode zipped along at such an amazing pace that none of that even mattered. This was all about the characters, establishing the new doctor and his new digs, and his new companion and her world, and it rocked in all of those regards. Matt Smith completely won me over within minutes, but then somehow still managed to get better and better throughout the episode. The doctor's roof top showdown with the alien threat was awesome, especially the unexpected acknowledgment of his ten previous incarnations. And I'm going out on a limb and proclaiming after only one episode that Amy Pond is the best companion of the rebooted series. This episode and the season preview that followed left me giddy with excitement for what new showrunner Steven Moffat has planned.

Sunday, April 4th
Liked: The Amazing Race (16x8)

This week's leg in Malaysia was a classic example of Amazing Race "taxi trouble." A good taxi driver helped the cowboys regain first place, despite the extra Speed Bump challenge, and bad taxi drivers plus bad decisions finished off Steve and Allie. No big loss there. I'm cheering for those damn lucky cowboys, the cops, or the brothers to win.