Category: Episode Reviews
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Lone Star, “One in Every Family”
Well, this was fun. After horrendous ratings in both its premiere and second episodes, FOX has done really the only it could do: cancelled Lone Star. The series is off the schedule and will be replaced by the sturdy Lie to Me starting next Monday. I know the campaigns are already going and people are…
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The Event, “To Keep Us Safe”
Leading up to “To Keep Us Safe,” NBC ran hundreds (thousands?) of promos noting that the episode would deliver all. the. answers. I’ve been down that road dozens of time with ABC’s promo department in reference to Lost (even when I didn’t care about the answers), but I have to give the Peacock and the…
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Chuck, “Chuck Versus the Suitcase”
Though I enjoyed last week’s Chuck premiere, there was some discussion Twitter about the series’ storytelling desires. After the premiere, Daniel Walters wrote a nice piece about what he’d do to improve the series, particularly when it comes to raised stakes and less formulaic cases that involve Chuck and Sarah infiltrating a party. I can’t…
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Hawaii Five-0, “Ohana”
Though I really enjoyed the Hawaii Five-0 pilot, I didn’t have high expectations for subsequent efforts because of a lower budget, (probably) lesser or cinematic direction and less time to get the characters right. However, episode two, “Ohana,” is just as good as the reboot’s pilot effort, featuring some nice action sequences and a surprising…
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House, “Selfish”
House is no longer going to be the series that it was in the early seasons. It’s now going to be about House’s relationship with Cuddy, primarily, and House’s “improvement” secondly. For some fans, that’s a hard paradigm shift to get behind. For me, I’ve more or less resigned myself to this fact and am…
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Rubicon, “In Whom We Trust”
When Rubicon began, I was fairly hooked just because I like conspiracy stories and thus had less problems with the pilot episode than others. But as the series has transitioned away from a conspiracy- and mystery-heavy series, or at least balanced those elements with more procedural, character-based fare, Rubicon has quickly gone from good to great to…
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Mad Men, “Hands and Knees”
Ed note: I’m currently with a laptop, so that’s why there was no posting over the weekend, why this is later than usual and why there might not be any other posts the rest of the day. Sometimes Mad Men is more obvious with its thematic concerns, but in most cases, that’s okay. If the themes…
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Season Premiere — Supernatural, “Exile on Main St.”
Whereas the Smallville premiere had to prove it the series has direction in its final season, the Supernatural premiere has to do even more heavy lifting to even convince me it should exist as a series. I’ve already expressed my discontent with the series continuing on to a sixth season, particularly with the “back to…
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Season Premiere — Smallville, “Lazarus”
The premiere of Smallville‘s tenth(!) and final season is in a weird position. On one hand, this is the final season! By that I mean the writers should have no trouble moving towards the end of the story that we’ve all been waiting since 2001 for, the journey is almost completely. On the other hand, because…
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The Vampire Diaries, “Bad Moon Rising”
I’ve had trouble all day with this post. I’ve started and stopped twice now because I don’t feel like I have a whole lot to say about “Bad Moon Rising,” even if the episode itself is a nice character-focused effort. Maybe it’s the by-product of watching all of the first season all at once, but…
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Terriers, “Change Partners”
Just like yesterday, I’m still playing catch-up with the exciting amount of new television in front of me, so apologies for just now getting to Wednesday’s stellar Terriers, which should definitely calm any concerns about the series’ ability to tell standalone stories or even the lesser concerns about the weight of the stories being told.…
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Season Premiere — Community, “Anthropology 101”
Disclaimer: Community is, by far, my favorite comedy on television. There are no episodes of the first season that I even dislike a bit. The good news is, it’s also one of the best comedies on television, so my undying devotion won’t seem that biased or odd amid the sea of glowing reviews across the interwebs. Last…
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Season Premiere — The Office, “Nepotism”
Going into Steve Carell’s final season as Michael Scott, The Office is in a unique position. Though last season was definitely the worst thus far and Year 7 is rarely a whirlwind resurgence for a slumping long-running comedy, Carell’s departure suggests that the series’ writers will be faced with doing some of the things that…
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Season Premiere — Fringe, “Olivia”
Much has been made about Fringe‘s elevation from middling mythology series that leaned too heavily on the procedural to an impressive series full of innovative ideas and great, real characters. And for good reason, as the second half of season two was freaking fantastic and the two-part finale was the most confident I have ever…
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Series Premiere — Undercovers, “Pilot”
I’ve gone through a whirlwind of emotions with J.J. Abrams’ new spy series, Undercovers. Throughout the development process, I was excited, and why wouldn’t I be? It’s J.J. Abrams! The beautiful looking clips released during upfronts convinced me it was going to be a fun little series. Then, as the summer progressed, NBC kept showing…
CB, PhD 