Week in Review, Oct 22 to 28

Just TV again this week. I am hopeful that next week's Week in Review will include the first The Week in Books entry (or, at worst, the week after next). My reading time has been disappointingly sporadic of late, but I think that'll turn around soon.

The Week in Television

Since this was a lighter week of scheduled TV (because of Fox's baseball coverage) and I have absolutely no life, I had an opportunity on Sunday to marathon a couple shows that I had fallen behind in. First up was Stargate Universe. And then it was time for Glee. Both will now be added to my weekly viewing--not that I needed more shows to watch, but this shit is too good to skip.

Now that I am caught up, Stargate Universe will be the first Stargate series I watch on a weekly basis. Since the original Stargate movie was so awful, I didn't really have any interest when the original Stargate SG1 series was launched. Even after hearing from multiple sources that it was pretty good, it took until the show was in its seventh season on the air for me to sample the first season on DVD. And it was pretty good--I'd describe it as Star-Trek-lite. It took a while, but I eventually worked my way through all ten seasons on DVD, and I did enjoy the show, most of the time. I'm not a huge fan of the Stargate SG1 universe (the Goa'uld always came off as cheesy villains, never intimidating), but the show never took itself too seriously and was generally fun and entertaining. SG1's first spin-off was Stargate Atlantis, the Deep Space Nine of the Stargate saga, in more ways than one. This past summer I watched the entire SGA series on DVD, and I really enjoyed it. I was surprised how good it was. Better mythology, better writing, better characters (Rodney McKay FTW!). Stargate Universe is the second spin-off of SG1, and it will hopefully not end up being the Voyager of the Stargate saga, despite borrowing the "trapped at the far end of the universe" premise. So far, so good! I watched the first five episodes on Sunday and I was sad when I realized I had to wait a week for episode six. SGU has a lot of similarities to SGA, but has borrowed most of its look and style from Battlestar Galactica--definitely a smart move!--and is developing some very promising storylines. I'm unsure at this point if SGU has the quality characters of SGA or BSG, but there is definitely a lot of potential.

People have been raving about Glee since its pilot was sneak previewed earlier this year. I remember seeing a short snippet of the show back then and wondering who would want to watch that shit. Now that I've seen the pilot in its entirety, I have to admit that I was an idiot to judge the show by one scene seen out of context. This is unquestionably the most entertaining new show of the season. I watched seven out of the eight episodes of this show in a row on Sunday, and I only stopped because I had to go to bed at a reasonable time. The musical numbers are always the highlight, especially episode six's two mash-ups and every appearance of "Don't Stop Believing." The characters are terrific, the storylines are ridiculous, and the relationships are completely fucked up, especially amongst the adults. The only problem I foresee with this show is that the concept has a very limited shelf life.

Thursday, October 22nd
Liked: 30 Rock (4x2), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (5x6), The Office (6x6)
Meh: Parks and Recreation (2x6)

The Thursday comedies were stronger this week than last, but nothing was particularly excellent. Although "Kaboom" was a big episode for moving the show forward (because the hole was finally filled), Parks and Recreation is squandering all of its early season potential lately with dumb plotlines and a lack of laughs. The Office's "The Lover" was pretty funny, but it was even more awkward and uncomfortable. It made sense for Pam to be initially upset about Michael and her mom, but her unwavering anger was taken too far. "Into the Crevasse" was a typical 30 Rock episode: completely absurd but pretty damn funny. Always Sunny's "The World Series Defense" had a good setup and even better execution--loved the grain alcohol jugs and the return of Greenman!

Friday, October 23rd
Loved: Dollhouse (2x4), Stargate Universe (1x5)

It's now pretty much a done deal that Dollhouse will be done before Christmas. It remains to be seen whether the show will get all 13 episodes of its second season on the air. Dollhouse is not airing during November sweeps, which means a long four week hiatus after this week's "Belonging," one of the best episodes of the series to date. Although I personally have no problems with the typical Echo imprint-of-the-week episodes, Dollhouse is always at its best when it breaks formula. Even better, this episode wasn't about Echo at all, focusing on Sierra's past and present and answering some lingering questions from the first season. It is also interesting how much I've come to like the character Topher, considering he was probably my least favourite character at the beginning of the series.

I've already written a lot about Stargate Universe in this Week in Review, but I did want to mention that episode five, "Light," was probably the best episode to date of the series, despite the inevitability of the ending. I appreciate that the series is taking time out to let the characters experience the wonders of the universe around them with the observation deck concept, and that the special effects in these sequences are pretty astounding at times. I'm a little concerned that the ending here has killed the "How will they survive?" suspense that was central to the drama up to this point, but I trust Brad Wright to keep this series interesting.

Sunday, October 25th
Loved: Dexter (4x5)
Liked: The Amazing Race (15x5),
Meh: Bored to Death (1x6), Curb Your Enthusiasm (7x6)

Dexter's "Dirty Harry" was another winner. This season seems to be moving at a ridiculously quick pace. I would have expected the events of this episode to play out much later in the season, but I will trust that the writers know what they are doing. Can't wait for next week!

Neither Curb Your Enthusiasm nor Bored to Death brought their A-game this week. There was some good stuff with poor Richard Lewis to slightly enliven Curb's strangely dull "The Bare Midriff," but the absurdity of Larry getting arrested for stealing napkins was really pushing it. The pot humour in Bored's "The Case of the Beautiful Blackmailer" was tiresome, but I did appreciate the episode's ending. Curb Your Enthusiasm has had such a strong season that I don't mind one weaker outing, but Bored To Death is starting to lose me and is definitely no longer my favourite new show this year.

Monday, October 26th
Disliked: Heroes (4x7)

"Strange Attractors" was a pretty terrible episode of Heroes. The trend this season is to alternate characters from week to week, because there are apparently too many to include in each episode. So, no Hiro, and by extension, no Charlie this week. Fuck that shit! I even missed Peter, and I don't really like Peter. Instead, we get more nonsense with Parkman and Sylon, Noah and Tracy unable to save healer boy from redneck justice, and Claire saving Gretchen from invisible girl in the most wrong-headed storyline of the episode. At least the episode ended with a pretty cool example of Samuel's powers.

Wednesday, October 28th
Liked: Modern Family (1x6), South Park (13x11)

This week's Modern Family was probably the weakest episode to date, but it still had plenty of good laughs thanks to Phil and Cameron. I don't have much else to say about it.

I am not familiar with the reality show that South Park was mocking with "Whale Whores," but the absurdity of the opening moments of this episode was pretty awesome. When it shifted into reality show parody, it was pretty funny, but I imagine it would be even funnier with more familiarity of "Whale Wars," or whatever the real show is called. I did laugh pretty hard at the Larry King interview, though. And the ending was goofy, but it worked.