Week in Review, May 17 to 23

The Week in Television

After this week's numerous season and series finales, next week will be rather quiet. Other than most of the Monday night shows, which are one week behind and airing their finales tomorrow, only Glee will be left on TV for me to actually watch as it airs. Everything else has to be downloaded; the remaining shows (Party Down, Stargate, Doctor Who) all air on channels that I do not receive.

In between the numerous season finales this week, I had some time to watch a few more episodes of Breaking Bad, finishing off the short first season, which ended as gritty, dark, and fantastic as it had started. And, for some much needed levity, although the series is more dramatic than I expected, I have started to watch the first season of Californication as well. It's also much better than I expected it to be.

Monday, May 17th
Loved: The Big Bang Theory (3x22), Chuck (3x17)
Liked: How I Met Your Mother (5x23)
Meh: House (6x21)

"Chuck Versus the Living Dead" was a return to form for the series, ramping up the Ring storyline considerably while bringing back the awesome Scott Bakula, and we are presumably building to a big Intersect showdown between Chuck and Shaw in the finale. But, wait one second? What was that about Shaw and the Intersect? Of all the crazy, episode ending twists, Shaw downloading the Ring's secret Intersect is quite possibly the biggest WTF moment in Chuck history. This could be awesome; this could be not at all awesome. I guess I'll find out in next week's two-hour finale.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Big Bang Theory's flashback episode, "The Staircase Implementation." Seeing the gang coming together for the first time was an undeniable treat.

"The Wedding Bride" was a strange episode of How I Met Your Mother. Half the running time was taken up by a purposefully awful romantic comedy adaptation of Ted's history with Stella. And the other half focused on Ted's latest "not the mother" relationship and a pretty amusing gag involving literal baggage. Overall: it was okay.

House's season finale, "Help Me," was another one of those "mix up the formula" episodes that they actually did an admirable number of in this sixth season. But... this one wasn't good. In one word: boring!

Tuesday, May 18th
Loved: Glee (1x19), Lost (6x16)

Lost's "What They Died For" was awesome, feeling very much like a part of the big finale. Jacob explained himself! Jack stepped up! Sawyer felt remorse! Desmond was the fucking man! Any worries that I had that the finale was not going to rock, due mostly to last week's surprisingly low-key disappointment (because I have loved this season as a whole), were completely washed away here.

Joss Whedon! Neil Patrick Harris! Glee's "Dream On" was pretty much guaranteed to be a winner in my books. And it was; easily eclipsing the previous five episodes. The "Dream On" duet was cool, although Matthew Morrison smoked NPH. The twist in the Jesse and Rachel storyline was pretty awesome. And Artie's "Safety Dance" was unquestionably the highlight of the episode for me.

Wednesday, May 19th
Loved: Modern Family (1x24)

Modern Family ended their season with "Family Portrait," a nearly perfect finale to a great first season. Phil's experiences at the basketball game made me laugh harder than anything else this week. And I can't remember a time that Claire was as funny as she was here.

Thursday, May 20th
Loved: Fringe (2x23), Parks and Recreation (2x24)
Liked: 30 Rock (4x22), The Office (6x26)

Fringe's season finale, "Over There, Part Two," was not what I was expecting after last week's action-packed introduction to this storyline. The big apocalyptic finale that seemed to be hinted at in part one was nowhere to be found here. Instead of an apocalypse, the climax was a kiss. But it worked--quite well. So, despite my expectations, this episode was still terrific for what it was, and maybe ever more for what it has set up for the third season.

Parks and Recreation continued their king of Thursday night comedy reign (note to fans of Community: I watched its finale as well, and while it was quite good, I still struggle to connect with most of the characters) with "Freddy Spaghetti," a finale episode that gave me welcome flashbacks to The Office's amazing second season finale. I'm not saying that this episode was as good as "Casino Night," but goddamn, what is? This episode was simply a great finish to a surprisingly good season of a show that I nearly wrote off one year ago. These things were awesome: Ron caring about Leslie keeping her job, April and Andy finally getting in sync (briefly, at least), and Rob Lowe, who is fucking killing it as "good cop."

The Office's "Whistleblower" was a good episode, but it didn't really deliver much that we have come to expect from season finales of this series. I guess the promise of Holly returning and what's going to happen with Dwight's purchase of the office complex are the cliffhangers...? Not that there needs to be a cliffhanger in a finale. The episode as a whole worked quite well and was satisfying as a standalone story. I loved Nick the IT guy calling out everyone in the office, and was pleased to see Andy and Erin briefly reconnecting.

I did not enjoy 30 Rock's season finale, "I Do Do," as much as last week's episode, but there were plenty of laughs to be had, and WTF moments, and Matt Damon (!). It definitely felt more like a season finale than The Office. Storylines were resolved, sometimes in questionable ways (pregnancy?--you're poking fun at other series, right, Tina Fey?) and sometimes in surprisingly sad ways (when did Wesley became so sympathetic?). And drunk Kenneth was pretty great.

Friday, May 21st
Loved: Party Down (2x5)
Liked: The Ricky Gervais Show (1x13), Stargate Universe (1x18)

Stargate Universe felt very SG1-ish this week with "Subversion," bringing the underused (justifiably?--they are pretty lame...) Lucian Alliance into play for the first time since the premiere. This episode was somewhat underwhelming in its reduced focus on Destiny and the characters I actually care about, and over-reliance on communication stone contrivances (again!), but this storyline has two more episodes to impress me.

This week, Party Down's crew were given the day off to party at "Steve Guttenberg's Birthday." This hilarious episode made inspired use of Steve Guttenberg (yet another in a long line of Veronica Mars vets to show up in Party Down) and gave us a taste of Roman's "hard sci-fi" writing while also introducing his awesome writing partner.

Saturday, May 22nd
Loved: Doctor Who (5x8), Legend of the Seeker (2x22)

"The Hungry Earth" was another strong Doctor Who episode, a surprisingly low-key reintroduction to the Silurians in the form of a slow paced character-focused episode with a palpable feeling of building tension. The ending of the episode promised a bigger story for next week's second part. I'll offer my opinion on the Silurians as (new to me) villains and on the two-parter as a whole next week, because this episode by itself only told half a story and is therefore difficult to review.

The problem with a series like Legend of the Seeker where one of the main characters is an all-powerful wizard, and there are no clear rules of wizardry, is that anything can happen and sometimes victories feel thoroughly unearned. The fundamental flaw of season finale "Tears" was that the storyline was effectively an endless sequence of "a wizard did it!" moments, starting with the far too easy way last week's cliffhanger was wiped away and ending with the single biggest unexplained plot contrivance I have ever witnessed. Sounds pretty awful, right? Wrong; it was great! It was a big, dumb masterpiece--the epitome of everything that was awesome and terrible about this second season. I'll miss you, show.

Sunday, May 23rd
Loved: Lost (6x17/18)

I watched four and a half hours of Lost-related content on Sunday evening, starting with the two-hour recap special, which was the only one of the hundred or so Lost recap specials over the past six years that I actually watched from beginning to end. It was more or less a waste of time. And then it was time for "The End."

The fascinating thing about "The End" is how completely satisfying and unsatisfying it was at the same fucking time. If you look at the finale from a perspective of character resolution, overriding series themes, and premiere to finale symmetry, it was brilliant. Emotionally powerful, action-packed, and never boring; the finale worked wonderfully in terms of storytelling. If you look at it from a perspective of "Where's my fucking answers, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof?!?" it was a crushing disappointment. Because there were NO ANSWERS. Well, okay there was ONE ANSWER: the sideways flashes were explained, at least. The island remained a complete enigma. Maybe there could be no satisfying answers, so this was the best approach? "Across the Sea" was certainly evidence for that idea. In the end, this series finale does not tarnish Lost in my eyes in any way, because I primarily watched for the characters and their stories, not the mysteries, but I would also completely understand it if someone else sees this finale as a travesty.

Now it's time for me to find out what the rest of Lost fandom thought, starting with Television Without Pity... this should be entertaining.