Week in Review, May 3 to 9

The Week in Television

This was an unusually busy week (OLP concert, ALES meeting, family gatherings), so I didn't have a lot of spare time. On Sunday, with shitty weather outside again and a few hours to kill, I finally started watching the first season of Breaking Bad. So far, so very, very good. Each episode has had one or two "holy shit!" moments, often with one as a cliffhanger. I don't know how this series can be in a third season as it seems like such a time-limited concept, but I'll definitely be finding out in the coming weeks.

Monday, May 3rd
Loved: The Big Bang Theory (3x20)
Liked: Chuck (3x15), How I Met Your Mother (5x21)
Meh: House (6x19)

"Chuck Versus the Role Models" was a goofy, mostly inconsequential episode, feeling more like an episode from earlier in the series. There is nothing wrong with that, and a lot of the fans want exactly this, but I was amused but unmoved. The ending provided hope for bigger episodes to come.

How I Met Your Mother revisited both Barney and Robin and Ted and Robin with "Twin Beds," an episode that had some good ideas, and some quite funny Drunk Ted scenes, but was fundamentally flawed because Don has been such a non-entity in the series that it makes no sense for Robin to be changing her entire life philosophy for this guy that we know nothing about. The title actually refers to the amusing B-story of Marshall and Lily experimenting with twin beds to get better sleep.

The Big Bang Theory writers came up with a great idea for "The Spaghetti Catalyst," sticking Sheldon uncomfortably between the now broken up Leonard and Penny. This is the kind of Sheldon episode that I can get behind, and consequently I really enjoyed it. It was a little much when Leonard and Penny started explicitly treating Sheldon as a child in a custody battle, but I still laughed at the absurdity of it all. I also watched this episode with my grandma, who had never seen the show before and got a pretty big kick out of both Sheldon and Raj, which maybe made it funnier than if I had watched it alone.

Tuesday, May 4th
Loved: Lost (6x14)
Liked: Glee (1x17)

Holy shit! Did all of that really just happen?!? Lost's "The Candidate" kicked the season ending action into gear in a big, big way, while finally answering some questions about Not!Locke's motivations and continuing this season's trend of Jack actually being kinda awesome. The sideways flashes were used this week to help the audience catch their breath, telling a quieter but no less interesting story about the other Jack and Locke.

"Bad Reputation" was a much better Glee episode than the last few, with a number of excellent musical moments, most notably "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (which has a bad reputation now?) and "Can't Touch This" (which had the best payoff of the night). A lot of people hate when Matthew Morrison raps, but his "Ice Ice Baby" was also enjoyable for me. The storylines were also much more interesting (and absurd!--Olivia Newton John, really?) this week, with my favourite moment being Emma confronting Will about his dishonesty.

Wednesday, May 5th
Liked: Modern Family (1x22)

There was lots of funny stuff in Modern Family's "Airport 2010," the first episode in a two-part Hawaii trip storyline, including Jay's exasperation about "Gloria's money," Dylan getting trapped, and Mitchell reacting to Phil's driving. But Manny getting taken away for questioning by airport security was thoroughly unbelievable.

Thursday, May 6th
Loved: Parks and Recreation (2x22), Fringe (2x21), Survivor (20x13)
Liked: The Office (6x24)
Meh: 30 Rock (4x20)

While "Telethon" was not quite as good as last week's Parks and Recreation, it was another hilarious episode with smart use of the entire cast. Written by Amy Poehler! There were many great Jerry jokes, some cute April and Andy moments, drunk Tom, Ron being his usual awesome self, and Leslie in way over her head.

"The Moms" was not a great episode of 30 Rock for me. It frequently crossed the thin line from stupid funny to just stupid.

"The Cover-Up" was a solid episode of The Office. The series is typically more fun with Michael in good spirits, although that had to inevitably crash and burn somehow. In light of the episode ending twist, Donna's strange behaviour in last week's episode makes loads more sense. I also enjoyed Jim and Pam's Morse Code prank on Dwight and Andy and "Darnell" learning about Sabre's dirty secret.

"Northwest Passage" was a strong Peter focused episode of Fringe, effectively tying the series' ongoing arc to a monster (er, serial killer) of the week storyline. Despite being heavily foreshadowed, the ending still packed a hell of a punch.

I am willing to admit when I am wrong. And I was wrong that the rest of this season of Survivor was going to be boring and predictable. After last week's episode, I never would have predicted the two new members of the jury this week. Candice got what was coming to her in a very satisfying boot, and then Russell destroyed any hope he had of winning in a jury vote by turning against his own alliance and orchestrating Danielle's early exit. Rupert surprised me again this week by actually playing the game, hard, and not once whining about his toe.

Friday, May 7th
Loved: Party Down (2x3), Stargate Universe (1x16)
Liked: The Ricky Gervais Show (1x11)

Stargate Universe's "Sabotage" was another strong episode, continuing the alien threat storyline while dealing with the last episode's cliffhanger as if it was an afterthought. There was also clever use of the communication stones to introduce an interesting new character that will hopefully be back again.

New cast member Megan Mullally was surprisingly key to a lot of best moments in Party Down's hilarious "Nick DiCintio's Orgy Night," as she absurdly attempted repeatedly to partake in said orgy. Guest star Thomas Lennon was also fantastic as the bitter divorcee throwing this poorly planned party.

Saturday, May 8th
Loved: Doctor Who (5x6), Legend of the Seeker (2x20)

"The Vampires of Venice" was a fun Doctor Who episode, with the Doctor reacting perfectly to the crazy ending of last week's episode by bringing Amy's fiance Rory along for the adventure. The sparring between the Doctor and Rory was actually the highlight of the episode, bringing the funny numerous times. The alien creatures were cool, the story was pretty good if a little confusingly open-ended, and the scenery and architecture were quite spectacular (I had flashbacks to playing Assassin's Creed II).

In Legend of the Seeker's pretty good "Eternity," Kahlan and Richard rescued the Stone of Tears (finally!) from a creepy Creator cult while Cara and Zedd were captured and tortured by a newly re-bad-ass-ified Darken Rahl. The episode-ending twist, which I should have seen coming from a mile away but did not, nicely set up the big two part season/series finale.

Sunday, May 9th
Liked: The Amazing Race (16x13)

So, my favourite team, the cowboys, didn't pull off the win, but awful Brent and Caite didn't win either, so that was a decent ending to an average season of The Amazing Race. And I don't think we've ever seen a sour grapes bitch fest at the finish line like we got here with Caite vs Brandy.