Category: Episode Reviews
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Doctor Who Series 7 Roundtable: “The Angels Take Manhattan”
Every week, my buddies and I will discuss the new episode of Doctor Who. We call this the Doctor Who roundtable. Creative, huh? Cory: It’s been a few days since the Doctor Who fall finale, “The Angels Take Manhattan.” And I don’t know about you three, but I’m still pretty sad. While we were ready for Amy and Rory to…
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Doctor Who Series 7 Roundtable: “The Power of Three”
Every week, my buddies and I will discuss the new episode of Doctor Who. We call this the Doctor Who roundtable. Creative, huh? Cory: Last week – and some might say, throughout all these roundtable discussions – we’ve been critical of Doctor Who‘s work in series seven. For those who think that we’ve been too negative, I’m hoping that this…
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Doctor Who Series 7 Roundtable: “A Town Called Mercy”
Every week, my buddies and I will discuss the new episode of Doctor Who. We call this the Doctor Who roundtable. Creative, huh? Cory: Well, there we go. For the last two weeks, we’ve been discussing how this season of Doctor Who and its title character have felt “off” in some way. The show has been willing to turn…
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Doctor Who Series 7 Roundtable: “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship”
Every week, my buddies and I will discuss the new episode of Doctor Who. We call this the Doctor Who roundtable. Creative, huh? Cory: Another week, another standalone adventure for Doctor Who. From the time that the season’s early episode titles and first trailer were released, “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship” has been an anticipated installment…
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Barker Chappell Daglas Mad Men Roundtable: “Lady Lazarus”
It’s that time again, folks. This is the Barker Chappell Daglas Reviewing Agency. It’s time to reconsider our life insurance policies and sleep with our favorite WB starlets, as Les, Andy and I take on this week’s great episode of Mad Men, “Lady Lazarus.” Cory: Welcome back, gents. I’m sorry. I said I was out…
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Chitchat: Battleground is one of the year’s best new series [that you’re not watching]
![Chitchat: Battleground is one of the year’s best new series [that you’re not watching]](https://corybarker.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/key_art_battleground.jpg?w=900)
I talk television with a lot of people. Friends, family, other critics on Twitter, vagrants on the street. I just love talking about TV. Because I don’t have the time and resources to do a podcast like I used to in college, I’m going to sort of replicate that experience in textual form in a…
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Barker Chappell Daglas Mad Men Roundtable: “Signal 30”
Hey all, it’s that time again. This Sunday’s Mad Men was one of the strongest the series has ever done, and the Barker Chappell Daglas Reviewing Firm is here to break it all down for you. Enjoy this, or Les will challenge you to a round of gentleman’s fisticuffs. Cory: Les, Andy: Welcome back to…
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Review: Community, “Contemporary Impressionists”
Not to cherry-pick from my own Twitter feed (not that I haven’t done it before), but “Contemporary Impressionists” is just a weird episode of Community. Weird doesn’t mean “bad” or “awful,” just as it also doesn’t mean “great.” This one featured some really intriguing character development, but was undercut by tonal and balance issues throughout.…
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Review: Community, “Urban Matrimony and Sandwich Arts”
Well here we are folks. After three months of agonizing, waiting, Twitter campaigns, flash mobs and a whole lot of kvetching, Community is back on our television screens in one of the deadliest timeslots around. I was supremely excited for the series’ return, just as I was fairly sad that NBC made the (fairly logical)…
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Series Premiere Review: Awake
There is a lot of baggage that comes with the premiere of Awake. Its creator, Kyle Killen, also guided FOX’s Lone Star to the airwaves last year. That series’ pilot is one of my favorite of all-time, so of course, Lone Star was canceled after just two episodes because of terrible ratings. I also…
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Season finale review: White Collar, “Judgment Day”
As I was watching last night’s White Collar season finale, I just wanted to re-link to the piece I wrote about the series six weeks ago. “Judgment Day” embodied most of the things that make White Collar so great: The plots twists and turns didn’t exist just because it was a finale, they instead worked…
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Review: Glee, “On My Way”
Watching and writing about television is a pretty painless experience in the grand scheme of things. But disregarding the world’s real problems for a moment, watching and writing about Glee can be fairly traumatic, you guys. Every time I think the series has lost its way for good, it pulls me back in with a…
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Review: Glee, “Heart”
By now, you know that my schedule/workload/life changes keep me from writing as much as I would like here at TV Surveillance. Of all series I miss writing about, Glee someone still tops the list (well, since Community is still trapped out there in the ether). I don’t even understand how that’s really true, but…
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Series Premiere Review: Smash
It is difficult to think or talk about Smash without considering the context of its much-awaited arrival to television. Despite what still-new NBC honcho Robert Greenblatt says about the series’ ultimate impact on the fate of the Peacock network, Smash is a supremely important property. In fact, I would say that this is the…
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Review: House, “Nobody’s Fault”
I’ve said this a few times this season, but House has few good ideas left. Don’t get me wrong, I still like the series quite a bit, and I think this season has been mostly solid because the writers finally realized that the few remaining strengths of House are twofold: Hugh Laurie and moderately amusing…
CB, PhD 