Category: Featured
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Test Pilot: File #9, Joey
Test Pilot #9: Joey Debut date: September 9, 2004 Series legacy: One of the biggest failures in recent broadcast television memory, a giant signal to the world that spin-offs don’t always work. And Test Pilot is back! It’s a new year, but the historical pilot analysis continues! In case you have forgotten or are new…
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White Collar, “What Happens in Burma”
After the first two episodes of season 2.5 focused on the major narratives, White Collar fell comfortably back into its procedural charms with “What Happens in Burma.” And unlike most series where I’d rather spend time discussing the overall threads, I find myself enjoying episodes like this one much more. I don’t have an overt…
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Chuck, “Chuck Versus The Push Mix”
Josh Schwartz has gone on record countless times, both on Twitter and on the Firewall and Iceberg Podcast, that the final 10 minutes of “Chuck Versus The Push Mix” were the greatest in the series’ history. Even for a series that’s been on varying planes of struggle for a full calendar year, that’s a big,…
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Fringe, “Reciprocity”
Hola Fringe fans! I didn’t get to review last week’s episode because I was traveling, but let me just say this: it was a good one. People seemed to be really jacked up about “Firefly” and while I don’t overtly disagree with the enthusiasm, I think a lot of it had to do with the…
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Parks and Recreation, “Flu Season”
There’s been a lot of hype about Parks and Recreation‘s “Flu Season.” Showrunner Michael Schur has consistently said that it is the series’ best effort to-date, the critics were all buzzing about it once they received screeners near the end of 2010 and in general, this is supposed to be the episode for the series.…
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The Vampire Diaries, “The Descent”
When most people talk about The Vampire Diaries, the first thing they mention is Ian Somerhalder, and for good reason. Somerhalder isn’t the greatest pure actor, but he’s an electric performer who just happens to be fantastic at the kind of scenery chewing this program asks of him. He is most certainly the best part…
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Cougar Town, “Lost Children”
Last night’s Cougar Town was a weird one. In a lot of ways, the episode felt poorly constructed and more random than the series usually is, particularly in the set-up of its main dramatic tension framework. The jokes weren’t too great either. However, “Lost Children” continued to explore the series’ most central conceit: How awful…
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Southland, “Code 4”
Here I am again, writing about Southland when I didn’t expect to. I tackled last week’s episode because it felt like the series’ best effort and was a particularly strong effort for Ben McKenzie and Michael Cudlitz’s characters. Honestly, I didn’t really think episodes of the series that focused on other characters aside from Sherman…
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Being Human, “There Goes The Neighborhood” Part 2
In my review of the first half of this two-part episode, I was generally charmed by Being Human. I haven’t seen the UK version this series is apparently so closely based on here in the early episodes, but the actors and the premise seemed good enough to keep the series steady enough in its own…
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Episodes, “Episode Three”
Sorry for the slight delay in this review. I’ve been a bit sluggish this week for some reason. Anyway, Episodes! This third effort is not quite as strong as last week’s episode, but compared to the pilot, it’s a glorious improvement. I tweeted this last night but I honestly have no idea how the Episodes…
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Community, “Asian Population Studies”
There’s been a lot of discussion about the two different kinds of Community. It’s not quite “3 Glees” worthy, but critics and fans can obviously see how this series can present us with high-concept, meta-driven episodes like “Epidemiology” and then follow it up with character-driven efforts like “Cooperative Calligraphy” or even “Mixology Certification.” What’s interesting…
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Cougar Town, “A Thing About You”
Thanks to President Obama’s admittedly moving speech in Tuscon last week, Cougar Town was given the shaft of preemption. I’m not really sure if that alters the season as a whole, but I read a few places about a winter finale cliffhanger of sorts — remember, the series is going away for a while so…
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No more questions: Parks and Recreation is already better than The Office has ever been
Note: I have not seen any of season three like many real critics. This argument is based mostly on season two and just a bit on my own assumptions/critical acclaim for season three. Even with my small profile as an “online television critic,” or my time at my undergraduate university newspaper, the question I’ve probably…
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Mid-season premiere: White Collar, “Burke’s Seven”
White Collar is a program that gets a good deal of mileage out of the general likability of its characters and the chemistry the actors have with one another. The overarching “mythology” of the series is not awful or completely muddled like the last few years of Burn Notice, but it’s also seemingly less important…
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Series Premiere — Being Human, “There Goes The Neighborhood” Part 1
Syfy’s Being Human is yet another one of 2011’s UK remakes coming to America. Based on the subject matter and the cast, it is also the one I’ve been the most excited about, even though I haven’t seen the original BBC series. I’ve heard a lot of good things about the British version of this…
CB, PhD 