Category: Featured
-
Fringe, “Stowaway”
Because I was taking something of a minor sabbatical from criticism for my spring break last week, I didn’t write a review or get to put down some thoughts on the cliffhanger from last week’s Fringe. You know, the one where William Bell’s soul/consciousness took over Olivia’s body, which was probably one of the biggest WHAT THE…
-
Community, “Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy”
I have been criticized, both online and in-person, for being totally in the tank for Community. Readers, friends, family, whomever they all just assume I adore every single episode of Community and perhaps I have lost all of my ability to review the series “objectively.” Of course, I hate to break it to everyone, but…
-
Test Pilot: File #12, The Marriage Ref
Test Pilot #12: The Marriage Ref Debut date: February 28, 2010 Series legacy: One of the worst television series to hit the airwaves in the last few years, a signal that we should all respect Jerry Seinfeld less. Test Pilot is back! It’s a new year, but the historical pilot analysis continues! In case you…
-
Glee, “Original Song”
If there’s one thing that Glee has consistently done well is the competition episodes. “Sectionals” is one of the top five episodes in the series’ short run on the air, “Journey” worked wonders in spite of itself and I actually found season two’s Sectionals episode “Special Education” to be pretty damn good as well. Of…
-
Glee, “Sexy”
At this point, I have resigned myself to the fact that Glee is only going to produce episodes like “Duets” on rare occasions and the rest of the time, the series is going to be horribly messy, swinging from one extreme to another. As a viewer and “critic,” watching Glee has become something of an…
-
Test Pilot: File #11, Knight Rider
Test Pilot #11: Knight Rider Debut date: September 24, 2008 Series legacy: One of the most disastrous remakes in an era full of disastrous remakes. Test Pilot is back! It’s a new year, but the historical pilot analysis continues! In case you have forgotten or are new to the site, here’s the general primer: In this bi-weekly…
-
Smallville, “Fortune”
UGH. Ever since I read a few spoilers about “Fortune,” I prepared myself for a terrible episode. But I don’t think anything could have prepared me for the giant suck-fest I watched unravel on my screen this evening. It’s been well-established that the Smallville writers have no qualms about ripping entire plots from other texts…
-
The Vampire Diaries, “The House Guest”
As the last episode of The Vampire Diaries until APRIL MOTHER-FREAKING 7TH, “The House Guest” should probably semi-wrap up some of the threads the series has been dealing with here in the first episodes of 2011 while obviously also set up things for the final six episodes in the spring. Thankfully, The Vampire Diaries is…
-
Glee, “Blame It on the Alcohol”
I’ve already gone back and forth on “Blame It on the Alcohol” a few times since it finished airing here almost four hours ago. While I was watching it, I kind of liked it. Then afterwards, I kind of hated it. Then I went back and forth a few more times before just decided to…
-
How I Met Your Mother, “Garbage Island”
Inspired by the sprawling, multi-armed conversation about the state of television criticism (see here, hereandhere, among other places), I’ve decided to take the next week or so to check in with the series that I watch every single week, but never actually write about. There’s been a lot of discussion about writing longer form pieces on series…
-
Smallville, “Masquerade”
Up to this point, neither Chloe’s return or the development of Darksied’s crew have been handled quite well. The budget strongly impacts the latter while before this episode, I wasn’t convinced the writers had any plan for the former. Allison Mack was willing to come back, and thus she did. Thankfully, “Masquerade” figures out a…
-
Community, “Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking”
Another week, another fantastic and innovative episode of Community. I feel like I’ve spent so much time writing about the series’ innovations and high-concept episodes and then the next week, Community does it again. I don’t think I was ever convinced that the series’ had a ceiling or a limit to the different kinds of things…
CB, PhD 