TeeVee
Arrow 1.3-1.4:
Is anyone else tired of Tommy already? He's so very "bros before hos" when it comes to Laurel that it's making me instinctively hate him. Like, I honestly believe he would have run in the opposite direction from Laurel if Oliver had said he had a problem with it. The only problem with Laurel's "FU" when Oliver started to bring the subject up is that she didn't include Tommy in it.
That said, I really hope she's starting on the path to becoming Black Canary, though I suspect they'll just string us along. Though they mentioned Bludhaven, so maybe Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson will show up soon. I also question Oliver's apparent intent to win his way into Laurel's good graces by having his alter ego throw desperate cases her way I mean, he seems to think it's working, but he is a bit unhinged. (Really, unhinged, actually, based on his little speech at the beginning of ep4.) However, I'm choosing to take Thea and Laurel's respective comments about each other to Oliver as evidence that they used to be close, and I hope we get flashbacks (and current scenes) of them interacting.
I'm pretty sure they're going to kill either Walter or Moira soon, and that makes me sad, because I like both.
I don't have much of an opinion or anything to say about Oliver's island adventures in these episodes except that I think Oliver's middle names are Edmond Dantes. That, and where did that list come from? I half wonder if he found a magic bic somewhere and wrote down the names of all of his father's business he thought might be shady. Far fetched, but Oliver seems increasingly unhinged enough that I'd buy he did it. And Oliver, what's this thing where you'll kill random flunkies, but not the guys responsible for them? (Deadshot tried to kill your family and the dude in the prison was trying to kill Laurel. I'll make exceptions, but I think you're missing the big picture there.)
Felicity is enjoyable, but the show seems to know about as much about computer techs as it does about lawyers.
Here's hoping Diggle actually is a partner, and not a sidekick.
Beauty and the Beast 1.3-1.4: I feel I've watched all these mystery plots before in various other shows but I don't care because I just enjoy watching Catherine and Tess running around being buddycop and the show not feeling it has to bend over backwards to reassure us that they aren't lesbians. (Though, since the show appears determined to be all het all the way, I can't help but think they'd be better off doing Tess/Evan than trying to force a Vincent/Catherine/Evan triangle, because the Catherine/Evan thing mostly feels like the writers assume two people that pretty will HAVE to want to jump each other and so have other characters assuming the same when the characters...don't come across that way, really.) These episodes seemed to devote a lot of time to Vincent making up his mind, which is ok since it had a bunch of Government Conspiracy stuff going with it, but I can only take so much "I must hide from the world so no one will see me! But I'll leave the pretty cop notes and run out to save people every 5 minutes BUT NONE MUST KNOW I EXIST!" and am ready to get back to Catherine and her official and unoffical buddycop adventures.
Elementary 1.5: I think I liked this mystery more than the earlier ones. They're definitely getting better at them. But I mostly liked learning more about Joan's past (even though we didn't learn as much as I thought we would) and being amusedc at Sherlock's less-than-secret obsession with it.
Nikita 3.2-3.3: Well, these episodes took care of the doubts the first episode of the season left me with, and could be summed up as "Nikita: the suprspy who saves other women, and her sidekick, the first girl she saved." Actually, 3.2 might be my favorite episode of the series so far, but it did play into a lot of excellent narrative tropes, and the writers appear to have watched Hanna between seasons.
Guys, do we actually KNOW Michael's last name? Also, Nikita and Alex's conversation at the beginning made me fear the episode would end up being about Nikita realizing she's be a good mother or something, so I was thrilled that that didn't come up again. Birkoff will probably never stop bugging me to some degree, but I loved his reaction to not being the first to know about the engagement. Really hoping they give Sonia scenes outside of whatever her relationship with Birkoff is soon,though. But I loved that Nikita went to her first while plotting the prison break.
Ryan running the new Division still hasn't quite grown on me, but it's getting better. But I hope we don't spend too much time on Ryan trying to give Nikita and order and Nikita doing what she was going to do anyway.
I thought Owen was supposed to be back already? I guess later. (But it's distracting when you're thinking someone is supposed to be in an episode and keep watching for them and they don't show up.)
Unrelated to actual content, but did Mia's actress remind anyone else of Tracy Spiridakos?
Once Upon A Time 2.5: Much better than last week, but that wouldn't be hard to achieve in my book.
The bits with Emma and the gang meeting up with Hook was mostly set up for the next episode, but I enjoyed it a lot. There hasn't been nearly enough of Emma and Snow so far this season (Regina has fared a bit better) and I hope that changes soon.
And Emma, Aurora didn't think to grab more suitable travel clothes at Haven. (Understandable, what with the whole "massacre" thing and the probabilty that she'd have been snagging a dead person's clothing and Mulan would be looking and going "But those are Jane's pants! That's Jane over there..." in her head.) Don't you understand that it's your DUTY to give her your jacket so that we can ogle your arms? I also giggled a bit at Snow's tolerant smile when she was giving Aurora a hand. It was all "I know you're not trying to be High Maintenance...but you are." I hope we get scenes soon of Snow and Mulan training Aurora at least the basics of self-defense and giving Aurora and Emma Ogreville Survival Lessons, but based on the last few episodes, they'll probably pass on that to have more scenes with dudes. Because network television needs so many more of those.
I find Regina's redemption arc much easier to buy into than Rumples's...whatever arc. Not redemption so much as "he's a horrible person who's responsible for everything but that's less important than HIS PAIN and he's an angsty male with A PLAN and thus fascinating." What they're doing now with Regina-including Rumples deliberately directing Regina on this path (and I'm sure he did the same with Cora before) and manipulating her-was set up in the earliest episodes, even though they lost track of it for a while with the "Regina is evil and behind everything and Rumples is worse but he's a woobie and so more sympathetic" thing they like. They aren't saying her Pain is more important than the things she's done. They're saying she made horrible choices and people hurt her and used her and manipulated her, but they were ultimately her choices, but now she's trying to make better choices. That's what you do with a redemption arc, not consistently have them do the same bad thing at every turn and toss in some extra angst.
Still don't give a flip about Whale. (Every character I've seen David Anders play has ranged from DO NOT CARE to active dislike. Yet, I don't mind him as an actor.) That said, while I appreciated the Kathryn mention (Where is she? Are she and Frederick locked in a bedroom somewhere?) Charming punching Whale seemed oddly out of place? He had no reaction before when Whale was asking if the fairies were still nuns or if he was allowed to hit on them now.
Not sure if there's anyone else here who watches both Once and Political Animals, but if so, did Sebastian Stan seem more like he was as TJ than as he's been previously as Jefferson this week? Could just be me.
(Yes, my issues with Rumples increase almost every episode.)
Person of Interest 2.5: The first half of this episode was absolutely hilarious. In general, the series seems to not be taking itself quite as seriously as it did in the first season, and I think it's stronger for it. I had actually forgotten that there were dangling threads for the ongoing plotline this episode went back to, but that's ok. It's always good to see Zoe Morgan, even for that little amount of screentime, and I think this was Gloria Votsis auditioning for Lois Lane. Hopefully she'll be in more episodes, since White Collar seems to have written her out.
Revolution 1.6: I don't know who thought a promo that went "Will Charlie be forced to prostitute herself to save her friend? MEN WILL DISCUSS IT AND DECIDE." was more interesting than the actual plot of the episode, but whoever it was really should not be left in charge of promoting shows again.
(Charlie, hang on to that dress. It'll be useful to whip outthe next time NateJasonNipplesSpiderman has a crisis of hormones conscience. Which probably won't take too long. Boy, how did you think Monroe was going to react to your news, anyway? Well, maybe you've mostly been in the Capital since your dad joined the militia.)
I'm undecided about the Aaron backstory. On the one hand, it does make sense. On the other, I feel it plays into the neverending theme (not of this series, but in general) of men making decisions that alter women's lives/dictate the course of their lives and the women don't have a say in the matter. Because I'm pretty sure his wife would have much rather have him and his not being able to carry his weight than not have him. Though, that dude they were with was too good at fighting to be a throwaway character. I bet she shows up with him later with either the rebels or the Militia.
Not nearly enough Nora this episode, and an infected wound isn't magically going to go away because you inject a person with adrenaline. (Seriously, she was still half dead and then just fine after that.)
But mostly, CHARLIE. She's pretty obviously spiraling into depression. (Which makes more sense than her not getting depressed or somehow losing it. In the space of a month or two, she's lost two parents, her home, been repeatedly in danger, and been forced to kill multiple people, both in self-defense and to save others. Add to this that she's very end game focused-she's 100% about saving Danny. She stops and helps others along the way when she sees them, but she hasn't said anything really about wanting to stop the militia or get rid of it, or even avenging her father. There's only room for one goal with her, and that's finding Danny. Meanwhile, she has Miles drilling it into her head that she has to wake up to certain realities and be willing to do certain things and she's trying to force herself to become the person Miles has her convinced she has to be even though she hates it. I just hope some of her idealism is still intact when she comes out of this.) The almost frantic framework when she was tearing up her postcards was a bit much, but it was effective. I'm actually a bit disappointed that she didn't go through with it? But I suppose that would have really sent her over the deep end, and I'm glad that she WOULD have.
People telling Miles how Charlie is so important and he should stay with and protect her is going to get old soon. Look, the dude attempted suicide-via-militia after knowing her for 5 minutes, hoping she'd take the chance to get away. I don't think you have anything to worry about there.
I loved how Danny didn't seem to quite recognize Rachel at first in the last scene. (I mean, he was...what? 8 when she left? )
In non-currently-airing US TV news, I've watched season 3 of Warehouse 13 and it was its normal campy delight and had some interesting changes and developments (only somewhat marred by the horrific decision to give Joanne Kelly straight hair. Not that it actually hurt the character or her looks or anything, but sometimes I get attached to character/actor hair, and in this case, Joanne Kelly with straight hair is just wrong.) until the last couple episodes, in which in all became Gloom and Angst and Drama and I was pretty much sitting here going "......whhhhyyyyyy....." and then the DVDs ended with a Christmas Special that appears to be set during the first season (maybe early in the second) in which Harry Dresden is being stalked by Santa, and so at least the DVDs ended on a happier note, even if the season didn't. I'm also 9 episodes into season 4 of Fringe and I was really really enjoying the new status quo (especially the changes to Olivia and Nina's relationship, even if they still had few scenes together) and hoping it'd be like Eureka and make the radical change permanent, but apparently changing things back to the way they were before is the main goal of the season. Also, why can't Olivia have a partner without developing a romantic interest in them? (Or even just a partner who isn't a white male close to her in age and with a compatible sexual orientation.)