Week in Review, Nov 19 to 25

Back to all TV this week. I haven't started a new book yet. I am aware of no new music releases that interest me. And I'm still playing and enjoying New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but I'm going to hold any further comments until I complete it.

The Week in Television

Before I tackle the latest week, there was one item leftover from last week. Doctor Who's "The Waters of Mars" was both terrific and terrible, sometimes jumping from one extreme to the other within a couple of minutes. David Tennant was as great as ever, serious then silly then serious again, brilliantly depicting all sides of the Doctor's personality. The monsters were satisfyingly creepy, an area that Doctor Who excels in time and time again. And the story was reasonable, if a little too reminiscent of many past episodes, with a strong ending that sets up the next special nicely. On the terrible side, there was the ridiculous sonic screwdriver usage, the rocket-powered robot, and the majority of the characters. Ultimately, "The Waters of Mars" was pretty typical Russell T Davies era Doctor Who. Bring on the era of Steven Moffat!

Thursday, November 19th
Liked: 30 Rock (4x6), Fringe (2x8), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (5x10), The Office (6x11), Parks and Recreation (2x10)

I wasn't thrilled with any of the Thursday comedies this week; they were all good, but not great. 30 Rock was the funniest of the bunch with "Sun Tea," making the most of NBC Universal's annual insistence on an environmentally themed episode. The Office's contribution to the theme was Dwight as the ridiculous Recyclops--fortunately that only ruined the cold opening. The rest of "Shareholder Meeting" was okay, intermittently funny, with Jim's smackdown of Ryan as the highlight. The Parks and Recreation crew went on a "Hunting Trip" this week, with Jerry getting a rare chance to shine, and Ron getting shot by Tom, but the best laughs came from April and Andy back at the office. Always Sunny started slow with "The D.E.N.N.I.S. System," as Dennis's presentation of his seduction system wasn't all that funny, but the laughs came fast and furious when each member of the gang attempted to implement the system in their own fucked up ways.

I expected to like Fringe's "August" more than I did. It was very good, but the hype promised more. This was an important episode, establishing some back-story for the Observer(s), and had some great character moments with Walter and Peter, but the kidnapping plotline was simply not that interesting.

Friday, November 20th
Liked: Stargate Universe (1x9)

"Life" was another communication-stones-heavy episode of Stargate Universe like "Earth," but this time the focus was on characters that are less interesting, and the major conflicts were all character-based and seemingly unimportant when compared to being trapped on a spaceship at the far end of the universe. It wasn't a bad episode; there were a number of good character moments in the scenes on Destiny. But this series needed an excellent episode to keep the momentum from "Earth" and "Time."

Saturday, November 21st
Liked: Legend of the Seeker (2x3)

Legend of the Seeker's "Broken" was a good character development episode for new character Cara, but the plotting was a little heavy-handed. Cara's back-story was suitably dark and interesting, but the courtroom scenes that the episode was built around weren't as strong. The B-story with Zedd and annoying drag-along Flynn was goofy but fun, a nice light diversion from the meat of the episode.

Sunday, November 22nd
Loved: Curb Your Enthusiasm (7x10), Dexter (4x9)
Liked: The Amazing Race (15x9)

In "Hungry Man," Dexter attended two Thanksgiving celebrations, including an incredibly twisted afternoon with the Mitchell family. This episode featured one of the single most intense moments in Dexter history; that alone would make it a winner. But the ending also featured a crazy revelation that I did not see coming at all. Awesome!

Curb Your Enthusiasm ended its "Seinfeld" reunion season with a terrific finale. This wasn't the best or funniest episode of the season by any means, but it satisfyingly resolved the season's stories that needed resolving. I was expecting more time spent with the Seinfeld cast, more scenes from the episode within the episode--which seemed pretty, pretty good!--and less time spent on Larry's problems with Mocha Joe, but "having said that," in classic Curb/Seinfeld fashion, everything paid off in the end.

Monday, November 23rd
Liked: The Big Bang Theory (3x9), Heroes (4x11)
Meh: House (6x8)

I enjoyed The Big Bang Theory's "The Vengeance Formulation" more than recent episodes this season. All the characters had good stuff to work with, especially Sheldon with his prank and hilarious followup video, and I quite enjoyed the continued absurdity of Howard and Bernadette.

Heroes featured TV's second most memorable "Thanksgiving" meal of the week, after Dexter's awesome Mitchell family meltdown, with an entertaining Bennett family get-together. There was also a twisted Petrelli family gathering and a much less interesting carnival crew celebration. In other news, Hiro took some welcome strides towards the darker future Hiro, Nathan and Sylar are still fighting over a body in the storyline that just won't end, and the reveal of who killed Samuel's brother shocked no one.

Wednesday, November 25th
Loved: Modern Family (1x9)
Liked: Glee (1x11)

Modern Family knocked it out of the park with the hilarious "Fizbo," a cleverly constructed episode that made good use of the entire cast. The elaborate setup of the birthday party stretched credibility, but that's nitpicking. There was no shortage of highlights in this episode, but the best moments generally involved Phil (of course), the zip line, comb sheaths, and/or Cameron the clown.

"Hairography" was not one of my favourite episodes of Glee. There were some solid musical performances, including an interesting and somewhat inspirational version of "Imagine," but there was a lot of unnecessary politically incorrect humour early on, still no Ken Tanaka, not nearly enough Emma, and although it seemed like a lot of storylines progressed throughout the episode, the ending employed a reset button.