Category: Episode Reviews
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Luther, “Episode Three”
After last week’s slightly disappointing effort, Luther‘s third episode strikes a better balance between a specific procedural case, the budding relationship between John and Alice and the unraveling of John’s personal life. It’s still messy and sometimes scattershot, but there’s more good stuff happening here. One thing I’ve noticed about Luther thus far is that…
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Series Premiere — The Walking Dead, “Days Gone Bye”
Even as someone who has never read The Walking Dead in its comic book form (well, aside from the first issue in preparation for this series) or really been that much of a fan of the zombie genre in general, I still found myself excited for AMC’s newest series. These feelings of excitement stemmed not…
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Supernatural, “You Can’t Handle the Truth”
After cracking the code that is Supernatural season six last week, I was very excited to just sit back and let “You Can’t Handle the Truth” wash over me. Thankfully, it’s yet another strong episode, that while sometimes too obvious, is enjoyable and effective at moving the Sam plot forward. The set-up is fairly standard:…
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Smallville, “Harvest”
I noted last week that it would be difficult to top the 200th episode, so there was really no reason for “Isis” to attempt to. However, I didn’t really expect or want the trend of mediocrity to continue into “Harvest,” which is unfortunately what happened. “Harvest” is also similar to “Isis” in that it writes…
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Community, “Epidemiology”
Apologies for the delay in this write-up, it’s been a busy couple of days. That’s unfortunate, however, because “Epidemiology” is most certainly the highlight of Community‘s young second season and one of the best episodes the series has ever done. A few weeks ago, I wasn’t too high on “Basic Rocket Science,” the NASA-related episode…
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Season Premiere — Friday Night Lights, “Expectations”
Pardon the pun, but coming into Friday Night Lights‘ fifth and final season, we as an audience have certain expectations. Because this is the final season, we expect some sense of closure for the characters we’ve loved for five seasons (and in some cases, less than that). Though we know many of the original Dillon…
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The Vampire Diaries, “Masquerade”
Sci-fi or fantasy series with big ensembles always have one big trick in their back pocket to pull out as a way to intensify the drama or weight of certain activities: bringing the band back together. Any time there is some big event that’s about to go down, rounding up all the characters under some…
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Terriers, “Agua Caliente”
After two episodes with more obvious thematic concerns (not that that’s a bad thing), “Agua Caliente” feels more like a twisty and turny Terriers episode that still makes sure we know exactly what the writers are trying to explore. Here, the topic of concern is partnerships, both old (Hank and Gustafson, Britt and Ray) and…
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Raising Hope, “Happy Halloween” and “Family Secrets”
One-hour blocks of a specific comedy series always annoy me. Either the block is filled with one full episode that stretches the material way too thin and ultimately makes you wish it was just 30 minutes — like countless episodes of The office — or the network has randomly selected to air two non-connecting episodes…
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Glee, “The Rocky Horror Glee Show”
I’ll be the first to admit that I have not seen “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the cult phenomenon that supposedly inspired last night’s Glee. And I’d like to say that unfamiliarity helped me enjoy “The Rocky Horror Glee Show” instead of experiencing it as a fan of the film and being wholly disappointed. However,…
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On Letting Go — Checking in with Dexter
As I’ve said previously, Dexter is a series I enjoy, but not one I really enjoy or one that I make time to watch on a regular schedule. With Mad Men and Rubicon off the schedule, I might be keeping up with the Showtime thriller more often so I have more Sunday television to discuss.…
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Chuck, “Chuck Versus the Aisle of Terror”
If Chuck isn’t going to take many risks or strive for its season two levels of awesome, fine. I’m over it. I guess it’s just time to watch the series, enjoy it for what it is and move on. With that in mind, “Chuck Versus the Aisle of Terror” still feels like an improvement over…
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Luther, “Episode Two”
Without Mad Men and Rubicon, Luther has become my only real appointment television for Sunday nights and thankfully, the second episode delivered a number of good procedural moments and a some nice developments in the ongoing stories with John and Alice. What’s interesting about the episode is that after a pilot that spends all its…
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Supernatural, “Live Free or Twihard”
Alright, Supernatural season six, I think I’ve figured you out. I’ve been extremely vocal in my dissatisfaction with the series coming back for a sixth season and found myself disappointed with this season’s episodes, particularly the first three efforts. However, after last week’s Bobby-centric affair and “Live Free or Twihard,” I’ve not only come around…
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Smallville, “Isis”
After a glorious 200th episode, there was no way Smallville could really top that episode’s events, so the best thing to do is continue the plotlines of “Homecoming” in a natural, but less epic way. “Isis”…kind of does that. In one sense, “Isis” has a number of the season’s best emotional and quiet moments. In…
CB, PhD 