Category: Episode Reviews
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Season Finale (Part Two) — Warehouse 13, “Reset”
A busy premiere week means lots of series to post about, so unfortunately, I did not get to Warehouse 13‘s season finale until earlier today. It seems I always forget about the series, but no matter what, it’s always an enjoyable hour of television and actually fairly potent as the second half of the finale.…
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Season Premieres — Modern Family, “The Old Wagon” and Cougar Town, “All Mixed Up”
ABC’s two best comedies enter their second seasons with varying degrees of expectations. With all the critical hype and Emmy validation, Modern Family has been crowned as the new comedy king. Meanwhile, Cougar Town has grown in stature in the eyes of the critical community, but still isn’t seemingly as respected as its lead-in, particularly…
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Series Premieres — Raising Hope, “Pilot” and Running Wilde, “Pilot”
FOX doesn’t have much like in the live-action comedy department. Aside from Arrested Development, there’s been nothing to write home about from the biggest broadcast network around, and that’s kind of weird. This season, the network is re-committing to the format with two series with famous pedigrees. And though it’s better that I don’t take…
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Sons of Anarchy, “Caregiver”
Sometimes even the best of series have off episodes. “Caregiver” is solid in a number of ways, but feels sometimes feels obviously manipulative or like attempts to extend stories that perhaps don’t need extending. I’m not sure that I want Gemma back in Charming and A-Okay, but having Tara make a very stupid an unrealistic…
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Season Premiere — Glee, “Audition”
Like many critics and faux-critics, I had a number of issues with the back-nine of Glee‘s first season. And the events of the summer — additional cast members, more theme episodes and Ryan Murphy’s hyperbole about dialing it back — there wasn’t a lot to suggest things were going to improve. If there is any…
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Series Premiere — The Event, “I Haven’t Told You Everything”
Of all the big Monday premieres, I ended up saving only The Event for Tuesday, and well, I think you know why. I’m not sure there’s any series that I have went into with more baggage in recent memory, and though I’m sure those frustrations colors my opinion of “I Haven’t Told You Everything,” it’s…
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Series Premiere — Boardwalk Empire, “Pilot”
Thanks to a busy Sunday for me personally and an extremely busy Monday for television in general, it took me a bit to get around to Boardwalk Empire‘s debut episode. That is a damn, dirty shame.
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Season Premiere — House, “Now What”
The season seven premiere of House is faced with a high degree of difficulty for success. “Now What” needs to somehow convince us that the House-Cuddy hook-up at the end of season six wasn’t random or rash, but also attempt to present a honest and real representation of a relationship that many of the series…
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Series Premiere — Chase, “Pilot”
Chase is not the worst new series of the season (thus far, that glorious distinction lies with Outlaw) and the series’ pilot is certainly not terrible. It’s just derivative, boring and unable to bring anything new to the table.
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Series Premiere — Hawaii Five-0, “Pilot”
While watching the revamped Hawaii Five-0 pilot tonight, I tweeted that it felt weird watching an hourlong drama series on CBS. This is literally something I have never done unless you count the random episodes of JAG I used to catch as a youngster when my mom regularly enjoyed that series. But for most of…
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Season Premiere — Chuck, “Chuck Versus the Anniversary”
Watching the Chuck season four premiere felt odd. After wanting that third season so badly and then having to wait until January to get it, the season three premiere felt much bigger and more anticipated. Having the series back so soon with relatively little fanfare (nearly every other series on Monday, returning or new, seemed…
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Series Premiere — Lone Star, “Pilot”
Lone Star is, without question, the best broadcast drama pilot I’ve seen since Friday Night Lights‘ premiere back in 2006. That comparison is interesting (aside from the obvious inclusion of Adrianne Palicki in both casts and the Texas location), because while watching this episode, I felt some of the same feelings as I did when…
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Mad Men, “The Beautiful Girls”
The world of ’50s and ’60s advertising is certainly a boys club, and although things have been changing, particularly for Peggy, “The Beautiful Girls” goes a long way in suggesting that despite the advancements out in the world, the women of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce are still being held down, either professionally or personally. A…
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Nikita, “2.0”
Nikita‘s pilot episode was fairly good, but the second episode, “2.0,” is a much better effort and perhaps a hopeful signal that the series is worth sticking with for a few more weeks, at the least.
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The Vampire Diaries, “Brave New World”
The action-packed Vampire Diaries premiere reminded us of how great the series can be when a lot of crazy things are happening. The second the episode, “Brave New World,” suggests that the series can also do more low-key, character-centric episodes as well. “Brave New World” is all about the aftermath of Katherine’s rampage in the…
CB, PhD 