Week in Review, Dec 3 to Dec 9

As the fall TV season is finally drawing to a close (although, strangely, two of my favourite series started back up this week when most series were winding down), this will hopefully be the last Week in Review post of 2009 that is focused almost entirely on TV. My biggest spare time consumer continues to be Mad Men, but I'm well into the third and most recent season now, so will soon be done with that time suck and ready to find something to replace it. (Note that I am not using "time suck" with a negative connotation. Mad Men is very good and surprisingly addictive and I need to watch it all now; therefore everything else that I could be doing is pushed to the back-burner.)

I've only read the introduction to Vonnegut's Mother Night so far. Ever since buying my Eee PC, which I love, I have replaced going to bed and reading a book with going to bed and reading feeds and online dating profiles.

In video game news, the fifth and final episodic Tales of Monkey Island game was released this week, but I still haven't played through episode two. The whole series is on my "games to tackle during Christmas vacation" list with Dragon Age and possibly Shadow Complex. I recently dug out my old Logitech mouse that has a scroll wheel that should work with Dragon Age, so now all I need to do is to find the time to dive into that monster of a game.

The Week in Video Games

Over the past week, I have for the first time in over a year been playing a new Guitar Hero branded music video game instead of a Rock Band branded game. On Black Friday, Walmart put Guitar Hero Smash Hits on sale for $18, and I found that I couldn't resist the price. Smash Hits' setlist is made up of some of the best songs from the first five Guitar Hero games (1, 2, 3, 80's, and Aerosmith), and there are more than enough songs that I love to make the $18 well worth it. I would have gladly paid more than $18 for these tracks as DLC in Rock Band, but most are not available, so this works as a substitute. After playing through the guitar career mode on hard difficulty, I was inspired to write about my feelings on the Rock Band vs Guitar Hero rivalry. Watch for an upcoming blog entry on that topic.

The Week in Television

Thursday, December 3rd
Liked: Fringe (2x9), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (5x11), Parks and Recreation (2x11)
Meh: 30 Rock (4x7), The Office (6x12)

After a week off, most of the Thursday comedies came back this week with a whimper. In a surprise, Parks and Recreation had the best 30 minutes of the night with "The Fourth Floor," creating some good laughs out of Tom's divorce from his Canadian Green Card wife. The Office's "Scott's Tots" had a wrong-headed, awkward Michael A-plot and Jim reacting with uncharacteristic stupidity to Dwight's "diabolical plan" in the B-plot. In 30 Rock's "Dealbreakers Talk Show No. 0001," Liz transformed into Jenna in a nonsensical and not really all that funny turn of events, but in a somewhat funnier subplot Frank turned into Liz. In Always Sunny, "Mac and Charlie [Wrote] a Movie," which certainly yielded some hilarious brainstorming sessions, but the sequences on the movie set were uncomfortable and far too unrealistic in the way that the entire gang wasn't ejected from the set within their first couple of minutes.

Fringe's "Snakehead" was a good standalone X-Files-ish episode. The monster of the week storyline was decent, but the highlights were all character moments involving Walter and his increasing desire for independence, especially the development in the friendship between Walter and Astrid.

Friday, December 4th
Loved: Dollhouse (2x5/2x6)
Liked: Stargate Universe (1x10)

Dollhouse returned from its November hiatus with two stellar episodes, "The Public Eye" and "The Left Hand." The latter was the strongest of the two, bringing two Tophers to the screen in a few inspired sequences with some very impressive acting from Enver Gjokaj. Summer Glau also made her awesome debut as the DC Dollhouse's Topher, the slightly psychotic Bennett. The two episodes worked well in a two hour block, finishing the story of Senator Perrin's attempt to out Rossum Corporation and the Dollhouse with some fun surprises.

Stargate Universe's fall season finale, "Justice," was a strong episode, focusing on the tension amongst the crew on Destiny and thankfully avoiding the crutch of the communication stones. The ongoing hostility between Rush and Young came to a head, and the ending delivered an interesting cliffhanger.

Saturday, December 5th
Meh: Legend of the Seeker (2x5)

Legend of the Seeker had an iffy week with "Wizard." Memory loss storylines are often hit or miss, and combining memory loss with anything-goes-magic led to some questionable sequences. I appreciate that Zedd was given the starring role in an episode for the first time since the first season's terrific "Puppeteer," but unfortunately it wasn't Bruce Spence in the role this time.

Sunday, December 6th
Loved: Dexter (4x11)
Liked: The Amazing Race (15x11), Top Gear (14x4)

Dexter's solid penultimate episode, "Hello, Dexter Morgan," spoiled its ending in its title, but I guess the ending was inevitable. This episode resolved a few of the less interesting storylines from this season, but was more about putting the pieces in play for the hopefully exciting finale.

Monday, December 7th
Liked: The Big Bang Theory (3x10)

In The Big Bang Theory's "The Gorilla Experiment," Sheldon attempted to teach physics to Penny while Howard dealt with jealousy issues over his girlfriend's interest in Leonard's experiments. Both plotlines had good material and plenty of laughs, but as has been typical this season, it was still not nearly as funny as this show is capable of.

Tuesday, December 8th
Loved: Better Off Ted (2x1)

2009's best new comedy, Better Off Ted, returned this week for its second season. "Love Blurts" was not one of my favourite episodes of the series, but even a lesser Ted is better than most sitcoms' best. It was quite funny throughout with some great comedic payoffs, and the characters were as terrific as ever, especially the awesome Phil and Lem. But no Veridian Dynamics commercial?--boo!

Wednesday, December 9th
Loved: Glee (1x13)
Bah! Humbug!: Modern Family (1x10)

Glee's fall season finale, "Sectionals," has to be the most fan service episode of any show I've ever seen. I was surprised when the fake pregnancy storyline was resolved last week, but that was just a hint of what was to come in this one: the resolution to every storyline from the entire season. I was actually a little underwhelmed by the music this week, but that hardly matters when everything else about the episode was of such high quality. If Glee had not caught on with the masses and had ended here, it would have been a satisfying series finale.

Modern Family's "Undeck the Halls" was my first Christmas episode of this season so far. It had its moments, but this was definitely the weakest episode of the series to date for me. None of the three storylines really worked for me in their entirety, although they all had good endings. (Maybe my Christmas spirit is lacking this year.)