this week in tv
I just doubled down on a ton of icons! So fear my many icons in the comments!
HIMYM, "Desperation Day." I really love how their episode titles always have double meanings. I also love how they've used the death of Marshall's father; they've really investigated what it means for Marshall. And I love that Lily came to get Marshall, and then left him alone, after asking him to come back with her. I love watching Ted struggle with his tendency to get too serious too fast (and Zoey telling him not to get in his own way when he got pedantic). But more than anything, I love that even though he was badgering Marshall and Ted about it a few weeks ago, Barney was going to the laser tag tourney with Robin, and then Robin fixed him up with Nora. I'm really digging the friendship that's developed between Robin and her high-functioning sociopath ex-boyfriend. There were like, 45 callbacks to zip zip zip (like that Robin and Barney were alone together in the bar at the end of the night, and the laser tag) but no one's ready for what that implied quite yet.
Castle, "The Final Nail." I liked how Beckett pointed out to Castle that he created himself, and then asked him out for a drink when it was all over. I'm really digging the friendship they're building between them because it keeps it from feeling like we're just waiting for Beckett to break up with that guy. Instead, her often-absent boyfriend frees her up to make big emotional friendship gestures to Castle without worrying about his taking them the wrong way. She wasn't confident enough in their relationship to do this while she was dating not-Anders last year. I'm also digging all the Castle backstory we're getting this season. And the whole Ryan-and-Javier-share-VDay-advice strangely makes me ship them even more, in an OT4 kinda way.
Of course I could have done without the reference to Fillion's short film for Spike from a few years ago, but that's as may be.
Hawaii 5-0, "Powa Maka Moana." Stay out of it, Nick Lachey! (No, seriously: you were a bad guy.)
Otherwise, not their best. It didn't suck, but I was sad that the show punished the Ray Wise dad for cooperating with the kidnappers-that was a weird note we really didn't need, and his whole arguing with Steve was just annoying. So I could have done without that subplot.
The bit with the car was adorable, though.
Glee, "Comeback." Man, that was boring, wasn't it? Especially compared with last week which was so excellent. I mean, "Somebody to Love" is just a good pop song, period, but man the autotune on that one. (And Artie doesn't need it.) The Rachel/Mercedes duet could have been amazing, and I think they were teasing those of us who know what the in-show context of "Take Me or Leave Me" actually is, but sadly they both sang the Maureen parts and neither sang any of the Joanne parts. Zizes singing the Waitresses song was at least better than if she'd sung Romeo Void, but still sort of whatever.
No White Collar this week because of the Westminster Dog Show.
Top Chef, "Lock Down." But it should really be called "the one with Muppets and Target." Now, I'm not the one who's going to criticize the Target product placement all that much, because I've spent just enough time in marketing that I see mostly the mechanics of it and also, let's face it, the show has to have those placements in order to give away all that money. I thought their having to put together their own stations was a little silly-Target could just have set up some tables for them and they still would have been from Target-but it really was good at selling the Target brand without actually doing anything stupid to the chefs like, say, that challenge where they made dishes inspired by a line of gourmet crunchy snacks.
The Muppets, though, were awesome.
Justified, "The Life Inside." Last season the show lost a lot of momentum in the second and third episodes, shifting down to a fairly ordinary procedural and dropping the continuing story of the Crowders, probably because the writers didn't know what to do with him yet. This season, though, Raylan is out working with his co-deputies, but the continuing story hums along. So, very improved! Which is always nice to see.
Also nice to see is that they've found something to do with Ava that doesn't involve a love triangle because really, she's not going to win against Winona and we all know it. Can't wait to see what Boyd gets up to next week, likely through sheer boredom. But damn, that scene with Raylan and Boyd was slashy, wasn't it?
Are we supposed to think that Winona is with child, in that last scene? Raylan sure was feeling up her tummy, and talking about baby names.
Community, "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking." I still don't know how I feel about this one. It was extraordinarily well done, but emotionally I'm confused and feel a bit battered to be honest. I really hope we resolve, even in a small way, Pierce's whole thing before we go into more repeats at the end of the month. Your thoughts, as always, are welcome.
crossposted from Dreamwidth |
comments | comment at Dreamwidth
HIMYM, "Desperation Day." I really love how their episode titles always have double meanings. I also love how they've used the death of Marshall's father; they've really investigated what it means for Marshall. And I love that Lily came to get Marshall, and then left him alone, after asking him to come back with her. I love watching Ted struggle with his tendency to get too serious too fast (and Zoey telling him not to get in his own way when he got pedantic). But more than anything, I love that even though he was badgering Marshall and Ted about it a few weeks ago, Barney was going to the laser tag tourney with Robin, and then Robin fixed him up with Nora. I'm really digging the friendship that's developed between Robin and her high-functioning sociopath ex-boyfriend. There were like, 45 callbacks to zip zip zip (like that Robin and Barney were alone together in the bar at the end of the night, and the laser tag) but no one's ready for what that implied quite yet.
Castle, "The Final Nail." I liked how Beckett pointed out to Castle that he created himself, and then asked him out for a drink when it was all over. I'm really digging the friendship they're building between them because it keeps it from feeling like we're just waiting for Beckett to break up with that guy. Instead, her often-absent boyfriend frees her up to make big emotional friendship gestures to Castle without worrying about his taking them the wrong way. She wasn't confident enough in their relationship to do this while she was dating not-Anders last year. I'm also digging all the Castle backstory we're getting this season. And the whole Ryan-and-Javier-share-VDay-advice strangely makes me ship them even more, in an OT4 kinda way.
Of course I could have done without the reference to Fillion's short film for Spike from a few years ago, but that's as may be.
Hawaii 5-0, "Powa Maka Moana." Stay out of it, Nick Lachey! (No, seriously: you were a bad guy.)
Otherwise, not their best. It didn't suck, but I was sad that the show punished the Ray Wise dad for cooperating with the kidnappers-that was a weird note we really didn't need, and his whole arguing with Steve was just annoying. So I could have done without that subplot.
The bit with the car was adorable, though.
Glee, "Comeback." Man, that was boring, wasn't it? Especially compared with last week which was so excellent. I mean, "Somebody to Love" is just a good pop song, period, but man the autotune on that one. (And Artie doesn't need it.) The Rachel/Mercedes duet could have been amazing, and I think they were teasing those of us who know what the in-show context of "Take Me or Leave Me" actually is, but sadly they both sang the Maureen parts and neither sang any of the Joanne parts. Zizes singing the Waitresses song was at least better than if she'd sung Romeo Void, but still sort of whatever.
No White Collar this week because of the Westminster Dog Show.
Top Chef, "Lock Down." But it should really be called "the one with Muppets and Target." Now, I'm not the one who's going to criticize the Target product placement all that much, because I've spent just enough time in marketing that I see mostly the mechanics of it and also, let's face it, the show has to have those placements in order to give away all that money. I thought their having to put together their own stations was a little silly-Target could just have set up some tables for them and they still would have been from Target-but it really was good at selling the Target brand without actually doing anything stupid to the chefs like, say, that challenge where they made dishes inspired by a line of gourmet crunchy snacks.
The Muppets, though, were awesome.
Justified, "The Life Inside." Last season the show lost a lot of momentum in the second and third episodes, shifting down to a fairly ordinary procedural and dropping the continuing story of the Crowders, probably because the writers didn't know what to do with him yet. This season, though, Raylan is out working with his co-deputies, but the continuing story hums along. So, very improved! Which is always nice to see.
Also nice to see is that they've found something to do with Ava that doesn't involve a love triangle because really, she's not going to win against Winona and we all know it. Can't wait to see what Boyd gets up to next week, likely through sheer boredom. But damn, that scene with Raylan and Boyd was slashy, wasn't it?
Are we supposed to think that Winona is with child, in that last scene? Raylan sure was feeling up her tummy, and talking about baby names.
Community, "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking." I still don't know how I feel about this one. It was extraordinarily well done, but emotionally I'm confused and feel a bit battered to be honest. I really hope we resolve, even in a small way, Pierce's whole thing before we go into more repeats at the end of the month. Your thoughts, as always, are welcome.
crossposted from Dreamwidth |
comments | comment at Dreamwidth