Category: Episode Reviews
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The Vampire Diaries, “The Descent”
When most people talk about The Vampire Diaries, the first thing they mention is Ian Somerhalder, and for good reason. Somerhalder isn’t the greatest pure actor, but he’s an electric performer who just happens to be fantastic at the kind of scenery chewing this program asks of him. He is most certainly the best part…
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Cougar Town, “Lost Children”
Last night’s Cougar Town was a weird one. In a lot of ways, the episode felt poorly constructed and more random than the series usually is, particularly in the set-up of its main dramatic tension framework. The jokes weren’t too great either. However, “Lost Children” continued to explore the series’ most central conceit: How awful…
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White Collar, “Forging Bonds”
Flashback episodes are always, always tricky. And I always say this. But that is because it’s true. As a writer, you run the risk of spending too much time on pointless details, creating backstories that aren’t important or generally going against what the fans thought happened “back then.” This seems to be particularly true for…
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Southland, “Code 4”
Here I am again, writing about Southland when I didn’t expect to. I tackled last week’s episode because it felt like the series’ best effort and was a particularly strong effort for Ben McKenzie and Michael Cudlitz’s characters. Honestly, I didn’t really think episodes of the series that focused on other characters aside from Sherman…
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Being Human, “There Goes The Neighborhood” Part 2
In my review of the first half of this two-part episode, I was generally charmed by Being Human. I haven’t seen the UK version this series is apparently so closely based on here in the early episodes, but the actors and the premise seemed good enough to keep the series steady enough in its own…
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Episodes, “Episode Three”
Sorry for the slight delay in this review. I’ve been a bit sluggish this week for some reason. Anyway, Episodes! This third effort is not quite as strong as last week’s episode, but compared to the pilot, it’s a glorious improvement. I tweeted this last night but I honestly have no idea how the Episodes…
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Series Premiere — Perfect Couples, “Pilot”
NBC’s newest comedy Perfect Couples is in a great position. Despite the mishandled “preview” screening after the end of The Sing Off before the end of 2010, the series is still getting the cozy post-Community, pre-Office slot in the three-hour super-block of comedy. This presumably means that a good number of people will be watching…
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Community, “Asian Population Studies”
There’s been a lot of discussion about the two different kinds of Community. It’s not quite “3 Glees” worthy, but critics and fans can obviously see how this series can present us with high-concept, meta-driven episodes like “Epidemiology” and then follow it up with character-driven efforts like “Cooperative Calligraphy” or even “Mixology Certification.” What’s interesting…
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Cougar Town, “A Thing About You”
Thanks to President Obama’s admittedly moving speech in Tuscon last week, Cougar Town was given the shaft of preemption. I’m not really sure if that alters the season as a whole, but I read a few places about a winter finale cliffhanger of sorts — remember, the series is going away for a while so…
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Southland, “Discretion”
In my review of the season premiere, I noted that I wouldn’t be writing about Southland every week and in general, I intend to stick to that suggestion. But last night’s episode was just so damn good that I couldn’t help but discuss just a bit. As so many critics and other folks have noted,…
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The Good Wife, “Two Courts”
When you binge on a full series in a very short timespan, a few things can happen. On one hand, seeing so many episodes in such a short time makes all the problems become much more obvious than they would be if there was weeks, months or even years between them. But on the other…
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Mid-season premiere: White Collar, “Burke’s Seven”
White Collar is a program that gets a good deal of mileage out of the general likability of its characters and the chemistry the actors have with one another. The overarching “mythology” of the series is not awful or completely muddled like the last few years of Burn Notice, but it’s also seemingly less important…
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Chuck, “Chuck Versus The Balcony”
“Chuck Versus The Balcony” is a weird episode. It’s built around the most anticipated moment of the season, but seems interested in sucking most, if not all of the tension out of that moment. This is an episode and moment that the fans have been waiting for and even though the first half of “Balcony”…
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Series Premiere — Being Human, “There Goes The Neighborhood” Part 1
Syfy’s Being Human is yet another one of 2011’s UK remakes coming to America. Based on the subject matter and the cast, it is also the one I’ve been the most excited about, even though I haven’t seen the original BBC series. I’ve heard a lot of good things about the British version of this…
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The Cape, “Kozmo”
After a busy, poorly paced two-hour opening, The Cape settled down just a bit in “Kozmo.” This series continues to be mediocre at best and dreadfully awful in certain worsts, but there’s just something about it that’s uncomfortably appealing. I really, really want to hate The Cape. And yet, I cannot. It helps because “Kozmo”…
CB, PhD 