Week in Review, Sept 17 to 23

It's almost been a full week since my last blog post, something I didn't want to ever let happen, but I have good excuses:

1. Over the weekend, I made a drunken fool of myself at Rowan's Ravine Provincial Park. We had beautiful weather for free September camping, an excellent spot, and tons and tons of booze. It was an excellent time with good friends that will hopefully become a September tradition of sorts.

2. Since Monday, I have been in a relatively busy training course instead of sitting in my office with nothing to do. The days have also been 10 hours long, and I had a lot of TV to catch up on when I finally got home...

But I'm mostly caught up on this week's TV now, and I thought it would be an interesting follow-up to my last post if I reviewed the past week's shows. Since the TV season started for me on Thursday, this review covers Thursday to Wednesday.

I like the concept of doing something like this every week, but expanding it to include new music and movies (and maybe books and video games) from the week as well. No promises. We'll see what happens.

Thursday, September 17th
Loved: The Office (6x1)
Hilarious: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (5x1)
Pleasant surprise: Parks and Recreation (2x1)
Full of WTF moments but still good: Fringe (2x1)
Fell asleep during: Community (1x1)

The Office got off to an excellent start to the season with "Gossip." There was a lot of uncomfortable humour, but not so much that I was cringing, and plenty of good character moments for the entire cast. Andy's confusion about his sexuality was the highlight for me. And I always like Office episodes more when you feel sympathetic to Michael's plight.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was in typical tasteless form with "The Gang Exploits the Mortgage Crisis." The episode opens with some hilarious meta-humour about the show's episode titles, and it maintains that hilarity throughout. In the interest of not spoiling you, my reader(s), I will say no more.

Parks and Recreation was a very inconsistent show in its first season. Without the pedigree of The Office involved, I wouldn't have bothered to give them a second chance. But if "Pawnee Zoo" is any indication, they have stepped up their game. How can you not laugh at an episode about gay penguin marriage?

Fringe's new season is playing it coy with the cliffhanger from season one. "A New Day in the Old Town" does not quite begin where last season ended. Instead, we jump ahead a little bit, with the writers clearly planning to slowly dole out over the course of this season the secrets that Olivia presumably learned from William Bell. Damn them! The plot of this specific episode features a shape-shifting assassin and is not up to the level of the last few episodes of season one; plus it has a twist ending that most people will see coming from a mile away. We are also introduced to a new character that I assume will be around for the long haul but is so far pretty bland. Overall, although it sounds like I am pretty down on this episode, it's still above average Fringe, with Walter and Peter in good form.

Community's "Pilot" was good enough for me to keep tuning in. I didn't fall asleep because it was bad; I was very tired, and it wasn't quite good enough to keep me awake. I'm not sure how much of the show I missed while dozing off, but I was able to follow the minimal plot of the pilot, and I got a good feel for the characters. I should probably still rewatch the episode...

Saturday, September 19th
Low expectations met: Merlin (2x1)
Best new show that is already canceled: Defying Gravity (1x9)

I missed Merlin on my list of returning shows to watch because I only learned yesterday that it had also premiered this week. It would have fit somewhere between the "excited to a lesser extent" part of the list and the "watching but not really enjoying" list. The first episode of the second series, "The Curse of Cornelius Sigan," is exactly what anyone who has seen the first series would expect. Merlin is a consistently good but by no means great show, and this episode is good but by no means great. The Arthur and Merlin friendship is still the highlight of the series.

Defying Gravity's big mythology episode, "Eve Ate the Apple," only aired in Canada because ABC has already canceled the series. I am grateful that CTV has the decency to at least finish airing the 13 episode first season. I only recently caught up on this series, having not heard a damn thing about it when it premiered 10 weeks ago--gee, could the lack of marketing have something to do with its demise? It's a damn shame, too, because it's a great show with an excellent cast and an intriguing premise. With episode nine, the series finally explained WTF was going on with the ship and "Beta," and the explanation was actually surprisingly satisfying while leaving plenty of mystery for future episodes. I look forward to watching the final four episodes on CTV.

Sunday, September 20th
Best new show so far: Bored to Death (1x1)
Good, but Larry David can do better: Curb Your Enthusiasm (7x1)
Meh: Entourage (6x10)

Bored to Death's "Stockholm Syndrome" was a pleasant surprise for me. The critical reaction to this pilot episode has been mixed to negative in my impression, but I really enjoyed it and will definitely continue watching the show develop. Maybe it's just because of Jason Schwartzman, but I get a Wes Anderson feel from this show so far (minus Anderson's uncanny music selections). Ted Danson and Zach Galifianakis are also hilarious in their supporting roles.

Curb Your Enthusiasm's season opener, "Funkhouser's Crazy Sister," is by no means a bad episode. But it's more awkward and uncomfortable than funny--the best episodes are better balanced. Interestingly, unlike most seasons of Curb where the previous season's big events go completely unmentioned, season seven continues the Blacks storyline from season six. The Seinfeld reunion is only hinted at here; stay tuned for episode three.

The highlight of Entourage's "Berried Alive" is obviously the development of Lloyd's storyline. No surprise there, seeing as Lloyd and Ari are the only characters that have done anything interesting in this entire sixth season. Eric's storyline continues to be a waste of time, I still don't buy Vince as a movie star, and Turtle's relationship troubles belong on a different show entirely. To be fair, I'm not a big fan of the show; I keep watching because of the Hollywood cameos and, of course, Ari Gold.

Monday, September 21st
Loved: The Big Bang Theory (3x1)
Thoroughly mediocre: Heroes (4x1/4x2)
Haven't watched yet, but I hear it's great: House (6x1)

The Big Bang Theory's "The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation" is a terrific season opener. The cast is as lovable and hilarious as ever. And there are finally some big developments in the Penny and Leonard relationship.

Heroes is still pretty terrible this season. I wish I could stop watching, but there's always this tiny bit of potential to keep me coming back. Neither "Orientation" nor "Jump, Push, Fall" have much of anything worth mentioning, other than their complete mediocrity. I have a hard time picking which hero is saddled with the lamest storyline: Hiro's kitten rescue; Claire's annoying roommate and creepy friend; Matt's Sylar visions? Only Noah and Peter are given something to do. The new villains may possibly bring something interesting to the series, but so far I'm unimpressed.

I did say I was "mostly caught up" on this past week's TV. The one exception is House's "Broken" episode. I hear it's pretty damn good though! I guess I'll review it in next week's Week in Review.

Wednesday, September 23rd
Funny with potential for hilarity: Modern Family

I wasn't planning to watch Modern Family's "Pilot" until I read some very positive reviews on Wednesday morning. It mostly lived up to the reviews. I don't know if the premise can sustain a series, but I'll keep watching as long as it makes me laugh like it did last night.

So, that was how I saw the past week of TV. Tonight the cycle starts all over again, with even more shows added to the mix (The Mentalist and Flash Forward tonight, Dollhouse tomorrow, Dexter and the FOX cartoons on Sunday). Yay!