Category: Featured
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Review: Community, “Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps”
Halloween is a big deal for Community. Although the series was off to a solid start, “Introduction to Statistics” is the first great or borderline great episode the first season had. From Pierce’s ridiculous freak-out to Abed’s Batman costume/voice, “Statistics” nicely combined the series’ pop culture-soaked sensibilities with its thematic and character aims. Of course,…
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TV Surveillance Podcast Episode 13 — Boardwalking Dead? More like Bored, Walking Dead
In the latest episode of the podcast, I’m joined by Les Chappell and Andy Daglas for TVS’ first three-man pod. We discuss the second seasons of Boardwalk Empire (yay!) and The Walking Dead (ugh.). Remember, you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, if you like that kind of thing.
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Test Pilot: File #26, K Street
Test Pilot #26: K Street Debut date: September 14, 2003 Series legacy: An odd, too inside-baseball-like look inside the Beltway’s power players Hello again, loyal Test Pilot fans! It is nice to see the six of you. It is time for a new theme! The last time we explored a network in Test Pilot we…
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Review: Sons of Anarchy, “Family Recipe”
When I checked in with Sons of Anarchy last week, I couched many of my praises with some concerns. Sons had been having a very good season that led to a number of truly great moments last week, moments that I didn’t actually expect to come until the end of the season. But amid…
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Compelled, not connected: On my lack of emotional connection to Boardwalk Empire (and why it doesn’t matter)
I don’t know about you folks, but to like a television program, I have to feel some connection to the characters in that program. I don’t necessarily have to adore every lead or cry when a character gets murdered, but I almost always have to care, in some way. Clearly everyone is different and what…
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Pilot rapid-fire review: Once Upon a Time
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 new series once it airs a pilot, but these…
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The sabermetrics of the fall’s new television series
It is somewhat hard to believe this, but we are already five weeks into the new fall season. Five weeks is forever in internet time, so this feels like a great week to rush to judgment on all the fall’s new series. Well, those series that are still alive. May you rest in peace, Playboy…
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TV Surveillance Podcast Episode 12 — Thematic Analysis of Social Decorum and Legal Procedures 300
In this episode of the podcast, my buddy Noel Kirkpatrick from Monsters of Television joins me for a lengthy discussion of the opening four episodes of Community and The Good Wife‘s respective third seasons. Remember, you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, if you’d like.
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TV Surveillance Podcast Episode 11 — Steven Moffat, You Ignorant Slut
In this episode of the podcast, I’m joined by fellow BGSU Pop Culture MA student Myc Wiatrowski for a much delayed, but still very worthy discussion of all things Doctor Who, including the convoluted sixth season, the finale and why I prefer standalone episodes to whatever the hell Steven Moffat is trying to pull off…
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Review: House, “Charity Case”
Even at its lowest point (which was definitely season five, by the way), House has never been a bad series. It has turned in some really tepid episodes – and even those are relatively rare – and for the last three seasons, the series has been generally coasting, but there’s still something about House…
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Season Premiere review — The Walking Dead, “What Lies Ahead”
The Walking Dead was not a good series in its short, six episode season. The pilot is one of the best single episodes of television in the past few years, but after that, things devolved into a rudderless, repetitive and un-subtle mess. Dead was always going to have an uphill battle with its plot due…
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Review: Fringe, “Subject 9”
If you’ve been keeping up with TV Surveillance and following me on Twitter, you know that I haven’t been the biggest fan of the early going of Fringe season four. As I said in my short review of the premiere and in my extended podcast conversation with my buddy Tim Bavlnka, the series seemed aimless…
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Investigating Community’s alternate timeline possibilites
Last night’s episode of Community, “Remedial Chaos Theory” was an all-timer. The reviews for the complex, complicated alternate timeline-centric episode are all super positive (including my own) and most of those folks who were worried about the series’ quality have reaffirmed their commitment. The episode was awesome, I’m glad that the fans are calming down…
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TV Surveillance Podcast Episode 10 — There are no ‘Good Guys’ on this show
In the latest episode of the TV Surveillance Podcast, I’m joined by my buddy Les Chappell for a lengthy discussion of Sons of Anarchy‘s rock-solid fourth season and Les shrewdly shills for FX and their smartphone applications. Reminder: You can now subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, should you like to do so.
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Review: Community, “Remedial Chaos Theory”
Do you really ever know if you’re the problem? How can you know? And if you do know, what do you to do to fix those problems? As we move along season three of Community, these are the big questions that one Jeff Winger has to answer. He – and admittedly, the rest of the…
CB, PhD 