Category: Episode Reviews
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House, “Office Politics”
I can’t remember the last time I wrote up House this season and that was mostly because I felt like the first string of episodes, while really solid, were exploring a lot of the same things in only slightly different ways, so it wasn’t really worth my time to again write “I’m totally enjoying how…
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Quick thoughts on Conan’s new show, Conan
After months of anticipation, loads of great Twitter bits, zero shows and 10,000 free t-shirts, Conan O’Brien finally debuted his TBS talk show, Conan tonight. Critics, fans and anyone with a remote interest in television of the late night variety wondered how Conan would mold his personality to the basic cable network, 11 p.m., etc.…
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Luther, “Episode Four”
I started out loving Luther. You know this. But after a thrilling and frankly fantastic opening episode, the last three have been particularly disinterested in fully exploring the Luther-Alice relationship and at this point, the procedural story has to be really good to make me feel like I’m not losing something when Alice is only…
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Supernatural, “Family Matters”
Again, my apologies for the delay in this write-up. After a few middling weeks there to start, Supernatural is firing on all cylinders again and although “Family Matters” exists more as a transitional exposition dump than an actual episode, it still works very, very well in it what it sets out to do. This effort is full of…
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Smallville, “Ambush”
Sorry for the delay folks, I had to take a few days off to restore some sanity, and not the Jon Stewart variety. That decision is kind of unfortunate, at least in relationship to Smallville, which turned in one of its better episodes of the season. After a few goofy and gimmicky episodes, “Ambush” felt…
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The Walking Dead, “Guts”
After a series premiere that felt familiar, but still riveting thanks to a confident execution, The Walking Dead‘s second effort, “Guts,” just feels familiar. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a massive fan of the zombie genre, I have nothing against it, but it’s not one of my favorites. Thus, I’m trying…
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30 Rock, “Gentleman’s Intermission”
I haven’t written about 30 Rock at all this season (to the chagrin of one commenter who is clearly in L-O-V-E with it because I started out the season thinking it wasn’t going to be worth it and then even though this season has been generally awesome, didn’t really budge from that schedule. As any…
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The Vampire Diaries, “Rose”
Last week’s “Masquerade” was the high-point of a solid second season for The Vampire Diaries, but it was also something of a mini-finale for the swell of stories told in the first seven episodes. Tyler finally became a werewolf, Katherine was sort-of dealt with, Jeremy became a real character, etc. Therefore, this week’s effort, “Rose,”…
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Fringe, “Amber 31422”
Fringe has been gone too long. It’s been less than a month, but when the best drama series on network television goes away, I miss it. What can I say? Tonight, the series makes its return to the alternate universe where we get some new information about the quarantines, as well dipped further into Olivia’s psyche…
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Terriers, “Pimp Daddy”
Based on my exploration of last week’s reviews it seems I was higher on “Aqua Caliente” than most, but that’s okay. And even though I really, really enjoyed that episode, I found that “Pimp Daddy” holds together a little bit better and is thus a “better” episode. Like last week’s effort, “Pimp Daddy” separates Hank…
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Cougar Town, “Fooled Again (I Don’t Like It)”
Last week’s episode felt like a turning point in the second season of Cougar Town. The first batch of episodes, while overwhelmingly fun, were sometimes clunky, scattered in interested in too many things at once to really get a good grip on what the season was going to be moving forward aside from people playing…
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Modern Family, “Chirp”
I’ve been hard on Modern Family all season, but when it is one of the most popular comedies on television, there needs to be some checks and balances to make sure that it isn’t being completely awful, stereotypical, racist or whatever. I’m not saying it’s only my job to do that, but I think my…
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Sons of Anarchy, “Turas”
I haven’t checked in with Sons of Anarchy for a couple of weeks because I’ve still been generally disappointed with the direction of this season, but I had planned on writing up some musings on “Turas” no matter how good or bad it turned out to be. Thankfully, last night’s episode felt more propulsive and…
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Chuck, “Chuck Versus The First Fight”
Of course, I after I complained about Chuck earlier this month, it’s rattled off three straight high-quality episodes that almost require me to comment in some fashion. However, in many ways, that’s a good thing. I want to talk about Chuck. I don’t want to avoid it here on TVS because it’s one of my…
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Dexter, “Everything is Illumenated”
With a little less to work with on Sunday as far as new programming goes, I’m going to try to check in with Dexter more often moving forward, even if it’s just for a quick take. “Everything is Illumenated” (haha, punny, that title) is a solid extension of the budding relationship between Dexter and the…
CB, PhD 