Category: Episode Reviews
-
Season Premiere review — The Vampire Diaries, “The Birthday”
One of The Vampire Diaries greatest strengths is its ability to come up with wild plot twists that seem both entirely crazy and completely believable at the same time. There have been roughly 9,000 insane developments in the first two seasons alone. And I might be understating it a bit. At this point, we expect…
-
Series Premiere review — The Secret Circle, “Pilot”
The Secret Circle is going to be around for a long time. With Kevin Williamson’s name on it and a cushy timeslot behind The Vampire Diaries, there is just no way this series isn’t a “CW-sized” hit. I am totally fine with this and I will certainly be watching Secret Circle all season. However, because…
-
Pilot rapid-fire review: Up All Night and Free Agents
The next couple weeks are going to be insane. There are so many new series debuting and unfortunately, there is only so much time in the day for me to write about television while balancing my “real” life. You know, the one I spend on Twitter. ANYWAY, I’m going to try to touch on each…
-
Season Premiere review — Parenthood, “I Don’t Want to Do This Without You”
NBC’s Parenthood is a hard program to review in the traditional episodic context. The comfortable rhythms and moderate-wattage storylines are easily explained and the performances are always solid. Sometimes, like in the middle stretch of last season, the series kicks it into another gear and it feels like there is more material there to poke…
-
Series Premiere review — Ringer, “Pilot”
I am so glad that I haven’t seen enough Buffy to have any emotional investment in the characters or Sarah Michelle Gellar as an actress. Because if I did, I would probably be doing a whole of spin-control in my head today after I watched Ringer last night. I would be telling myself that pilots,…
-
Tuesdays with Walt: “Bug”
There are loads of great critics writing Breaking Bad reviews every Sunday night/Monday morning. Because of skill and scheduling, I’m not going to be able to stand alongside those reviews. Instead, I hope to write something about Breaking Bad each Tuesday when I have more time and perhaps you are ready for a new day’s worth of material on…
-
Season Finale review — True Blood, “And When I Die”
This is the best season of True Blood ever. Sure, there were maybe two truly enjoyable episodes and most of the storylines were underdeveloped, stupid, poorly-plotted or some combination of all three. And sure, the series continued its terrible trend of crafting dreadful finales that are trapped somewhere between concluding old, bad stories and starting…
-
Series Finale review — Entourage, “The End”
“And with that, Entourage exited the television screen in the same way it arrived: With little dramatic stakes or character development.” This is basically what I assumed I’d be writing about Entourage’s series finale today. I never expected the series to randomly turn into something it is not at the end of the run (i.e.,…
-
Mid-season finale review — Burn Notice, “Dead to Rights”
If you know me and you know this blog, chances are you’ve come across me discussing USA Network and its series before. At a certain point, I feel like my analysis and regularly frustrated view on how USA series like to use somewhat empty devices to keep moving the chains away from the lead characters…
-
Season Premiere review — Sons of Anarchy, “Out”
“We’re not a gang, we’re a motorcycle club.” Like many of you, I come into this season of Sons of Anarchy with complicated feelings. As I’ve discussed a few times, I found the third season to be pretty tepid, but I don’t think I was as disappointed as most – if only because I didn’t…
-
Tuesdays with Walt: “Hermanos”
There are loads of great critics writing Breaking Bad reviews every Sunday night/Monday morning. Because of skill and scheduling, I’m not going to be able to stand alongside those reviews. Instead, I hope to write something about Breaking Bad each Tuesday when I have more time and perhaps you are ready for a new day’s worth of material on…
-
Tuesdays with Walt: “Problem Dog”
There are loads of great critics writing Breaking Bad reviews every Sunday night/Monday morning. Because of skill and scheduling, I’m not going to be able to stand alongside those reviews. Instead, I hope to write something about Breaking Bad each Tuesday when I have more time and perhaps you are ready for a new day’s…
-
Post-hiatus musings: USA Network edition (Burn Notice and Suits)
After nearly a month, my fairly substantial hiatus here at TVS is over. I am happy to be back providing content for you folks on a regular basis. In my time off, I’ve missed all sorts of television, both viewing- and writing-wise. To combat that, I’ll be whipping up a number of random posts with…
-
Post-hiatus musings: HBO edition (True Blood and Entourage)
After nearly a month, my fairly substantial hiatus here at TVS is over. I am happy to be back providing content for you folks on a regular basis. In my time off, I’ve missed all sorts of television, both viewing- and writing-wise. To combat that, I’ll be whipping up a number of random posts with…
-
Post-hiatus musings: Syfy Edition (Warehouse 13 and Alphas)
After nearly a month, my fairly substantial hiatus here at TVS is over. I am happy to be back providing content for you folks on a regular basis. In my time off, I’ve missed all sorts of television, both viewing- and writing-wise. To combat that, I’ll be whipping up a number of random posts with…
CB, PhD 