Category: Episode Reviews
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The Vampire Diaries, “The House Guest”
As the last episode of The Vampire Diaries until APRIL MOTHER-FREAKING 7TH, “The House Guest” should probably semi-wrap up some of the threads the series has been dealing with here in the first episodes of 2011 while obviously also set up things for the final six episodes in the spring. Thankfully, The Vampire Diaries is…
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The Good Wife, “The Silver Bullet”
There are many great things about The Good Wife. We all know this. But probably the thing I love most about the series is how easily it transitions from story to story and from character to character with little problem. With such a fine writing staff and a great stable of performers, the series can…
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White Collar, “Payback”
After a week off White Collar returns with “Payback,” an episode that probably won’t stand out amid some of the season’s best but still had a lot to offer. Series like this, with fairly stagnant week-to-week storytelling — and I don’t mean that in a particularly bad way — always benefit from recurring villains and…
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Parenthood, “Do Not Sleep With Your Autistic Nephew’s Therapist”
Inspired by the sprawling, multi-armed conversation about the state of television criticism (see here, here and here, among other places), I’ve decided to take the next week or so to check in with the series that I watch every single week, but never actually write about. There’s been a lot of discussion about writing longer form pieces on…
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Glee, “Blame It on the Alcohol”
I’ve already gone back and forth on “Blame It on the Alcohol” a few times since it finished airing here almost four hours ago. While I was watching it, I kind of liked it. Then afterwards, I kind of hated it. Then I went back and forth a few more times before just decided to…
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How I Met Your Mother, “Garbage Island”
Inspired by the sprawling, multi-armed conversation about the state of television criticism (see here, hereandhere, among other places), I’ve decided to take the next week or so to check in with the series that I watch every single week, but never actually write about. There’s been a lot of discussion about writing longer form pieces on series…
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Fringe, “6B”
I haven’t been able to write about the last few week’s of Fringe due to some traveling and odd scheduling matters and I’m actually glad about that since the season seems to be transitioning into a place that I’m not fully ready to embrace yet. I have no problem admitting that I really want Peter…
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Supernatural, “Mannequin 3: The Reckoning”
What a weird episode. I’m used to Supernatural throwing me for a loop when it comes to its appealing mix of horror, humor and heart, but “Mannequin 3: The Reckoning” was simply a mess. I don’t know if I have ever had this criticism of an episode, but this one felt as if the writers…
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Smallville, “Masquerade”
Up to this point, neither Chloe’s return or the development of Darksied’s crew have been handled quite well. The budget strongly impacts the latter while before this episode, I wasn’t convinced the writers had any plan for the former. Allison Mack was willing to come back, and thus she did. Thankfully, “Masquerade” figures out a…
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The Office, “Threat Level Midnight”
Inspired by the sprawling, multi-armed conversation about the state of television criticism (see here, here andhere, among other places), I’ve decided to take the next week or so to check in with the series that I watch every single week, but never actually write about. There’s been a lot of discussion about writing longer form pieces on…
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Community, “Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking”
Another week, another fantastic and innovative episode of Community. I feel like I’ve spent so much time writing about the series’ innovations and high-concept episodes and then the next week, Community does it again. I don’t think I was ever convinced that the series’ had a ceiling or a limit to the different kinds of things…
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30 Rock, “It’s Never Too Late For Now”
Inspired by the sprawling, multi-armed conversation about the state of television criticism (see here, here and here, among other places), I’ve decided to take the next week or so to check in with the series that I watch every single week, but never actually write about. There’s been a lot of discussion about writing longer…
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The Vampire Diaries, “The Dinner Party”
Sometimes, like I’ve done with the last few episodes, it’s interesting to talk about some of the emotional states of characters, trust and all that nonsense. But when The Vampire Diaries gives us an episode like “The Dinner Party” it’s hard not to just pump my fist with adrenaline-boosted excitement. This episode is jam-packed full of…
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Mr. Sunshine, “Employee of the Year” and Traffic Light, “En Fuego”
When I wrote this piece earlier in the week about my frustrations with television comedy criticism, I had series like Mr. Sunshine and Traffic Light in mind. I wrote up some thoughts on the Mr. Sunshine pilot last week because I randomly had a lot of people asking for my thoughts on it, but I…
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Justified, “The Life Inside”
It seems like Graham Yost and his team listened to the criticisms of the fans who hated the middle three or four episodes of season one. Although “The Life Inside” is most certainly a standalone episode, it does a lot of other things that address larger threads in the narrative. There is a normal Justified…
CB, PhD 