long weekends aren't long enough
TV round up:
Community
I thought the premiere was great; it managed to fit so much in and be so entertaining at the same time. They brought back character arcs from previous seasons:
- Chang's homelessness
- Jeff/Annie
- Pierce and his relationship to the group
- Britta's unselfaware earnestness
- Abed's love of TV
and promised to move these all along this year while trying not to cover the same ground...(except "this year isn’t gonna be that different, with the notable exception we won’t really have any money.” Hah!)
But at the same time, they also managed to introduce new characters and new arcs (such as the dean and his power/lessness, Jeff and his struggle with his need to be loved and respected by the group, Bio 101). Add a tounge-in-cheek musical interlude, Inspector Spacetime and Cougarton Abbey, Abed/Troy being close to canon, a 2001: A Space Odyssey homage dream sequence, monkey sleep gas named Chimpanzzzzzz, and one hilarious line after another:
“We have plenty of linens. We mainly want the things."
“If I wanted to run a monkey hotel, I’d install a banana buffet. I’d use vines as elevators, I’d put tailholes in all the bathrobes, and I’d lower all the shower heads.”
“That’s the great thing about British TV. They give you closure.”
“You are the opposite of Batman.”
All this in 20 something minutes. Glorious.
But Ep2? Apart from Martin Starr as the poli sci prof, so much of this ep fell flat for me.The Britta&Chang rebels without a cause connection was amusing the first time, but then it became a one-note joke carried on for way too long. And making it obvious that future Jeff/Annie would be awkward and not all that sweet was awkward and not all that sweet - and made Jeff seem really really OOC. And they could've done so much more with evil Asian Annie and the model UN. Meh.
The Vampire Diaries
TVD just went from strength to strength; this was probably one of my fave eps so far. This show...it just gives so much to the fans while being entertaining, tightly plotted, and really well-paced, as always. But these week there was the amazing bonus of 20s vampires and delicious Stefan/Rebekah/Klaus tension (Stefan/Klaus bromance is not just canon - it's like 80 years+ canon and now Stefan has all those memories and complicated feelings back!). Plus the return of Katherine! Not loving the torture of Caroline again but awww, Sheriff Forbes coming around to accepting that Caroline is a vampire, and how sweet Tyler and Caroline are.
More pilots:
Pan Am
I really liked this. Glossy and beautiful, with a dash of intrigue and possible awesome focus on interesting ladies and their relaionships with each other. Love Kelli Garner so I was glad to see that she (and Margot Robbie* as her sister) are arguably the focus of this ep and have strong plotlines - one sister running away from a suffocating suburban life, the other starting a new potentially dangerous role in Cold War espionage. And I want to find out more about Maggie (Christina Ricci)'s character. The guys take backstage - don't really care so far for lovesick Captain Dean and his mysterious disappearing fiancee, but I'm glad to see Michael Mosely (one of the few enjoyable things about Scrubs s9) and I hope they give him something to do apart from exposit and chat up stewardesses.
* P.S it's an Aussie lady invasion this season! Rebekah from TVD, Laura from Pan Am, Faye from Secret Circle and Abby from Charlie's Angels are all Australian.
Hart of Dixie
Oh dear lord, that first TEN MINUTES of the most clumsy, ridiculous exposition voiceover, and the fact I'm meant to accept Rachel Bilson as a unlikeable heartless cardiothoracic surgeon (...) meant I had to turn it off soon after she ended up in backwater Alabama. Not going to pick this one up.
Revenge
This is a little like bizarro O.C or Gossip Girl - obscenely rich beautiful people having ridic parties every week, sleeping with each other's husbands, pining after people they can't have, princesses slumming it with boys from the wrong side of the tracks - except more awesome because there's murder and secret identities! I'm in!
EVC and Madeleine Stowe play off each other really well in an enjoyable battle of composed, ruthless, beautiful ladies. And I am hooked by the idea of Emily/Amanda destroying her enemies, one by one. The only false note was Amanda's 'tough' past, not helped by a truly awful wig.
Community
I thought the premiere was great; it managed to fit so much in and be so entertaining at the same time. They brought back character arcs from previous seasons:
- Chang's homelessness
- Jeff/Annie
- Pierce and his relationship to the group
- Britta's unselfaware earnestness
- Abed's love of TV
and promised to move these all along this year while trying not to cover the same ground...(except "this year isn’t gonna be that different, with the notable exception we won’t really have any money.” Hah!)
But at the same time, they also managed to introduce new characters and new arcs (such as the dean and his power/lessness, Jeff and his struggle with his need to be loved and respected by the group, Bio 101). Add a tounge-in-cheek musical interlude, Inspector Spacetime and Cougarton Abbey, Abed/Troy being close to canon, a 2001: A Space Odyssey homage dream sequence, monkey sleep gas named Chimpanzzzzzz, and one hilarious line after another:
“We have plenty of linens. We mainly want the things."
“If I wanted to run a monkey hotel, I’d install a banana buffet. I’d use vines as elevators, I’d put tailholes in all the bathrobes, and I’d lower all the shower heads.”
“That’s the great thing about British TV. They give you closure.”
“You are the opposite of Batman.”
All this in 20 something minutes. Glorious.
But Ep2? Apart from Martin Starr as the poli sci prof, so much of this ep fell flat for me.The Britta&Chang rebels without a cause connection was amusing the first time, but then it became a one-note joke carried on for way too long. And making it obvious that future Jeff/Annie would be awkward and not all that sweet was awkward and not all that sweet - and made Jeff seem really really OOC. And they could've done so much more with evil Asian Annie and the model UN. Meh.
The Vampire Diaries
TVD just went from strength to strength; this was probably one of my fave eps so far. This show...it just gives so much to the fans while being entertaining, tightly plotted, and really well-paced, as always. But these week there was the amazing bonus of 20s vampires and delicious Stefan/Rebekah/Klaus tension (Stefan/Klaus bromance is not just canon - it's like 80 years+ canon and now Stefan has all those memories and complicated feelings back!). Plus the return of Katherine! Not loving the torture of Caroline again but awww, Sheriff Forbes coming around to accepting that Caroline is a vampire, and how sweet Tyler and Caroline are.
More pilots:
Pan Am
I really liked this. Glossy and beautiful, with a dash of intrigue and possible awesome focus on interesting ladies and their relaionships with each other. Love Kelli Garner so I was glad to see that she (and Margot Robbie* as her sister) are arguably the focus of this ep and have strong plotlines - one sister running away from a suffocating suburban life, the other starting a new potentially dangerous role in Cold War espionage. And I want to find out more about Maggie (Christina Ricci)'s character. The guys take backstage - don't really care so far for lovesick Captain Dean and his mysterious disappearing fiancee, but I'm glad to see Michael Mosely (one of the few enjoyable things about Scrubs s9) and I hope they give him something to do apart from exposit and chat up stewardesses.
* P.S it's an Aussie lady invasion this season! Rebekah from TVD, Laura from Pan Am, Faye from Secret Circle and Abby from Charlie's Angels are all Australian.
Hart of Dixie
Oh dear lord, that first TEN MINUTES of the most clumsy, ridiculous exposition voiceover, and the fact I'm meant to accept Rachel Bilson as a unlikeable heartless cardiothoracic surgeon (...) meant I had to turn it off soon after she ended up in backwater Alabama. Not going to pick this one up.
Revenge
This is a little like bizarro O.C or Gossip Girl - obscenely rich beautiful people having ridic parties every week, sleeping with each other's husbands, pining after people they can't have, princesses slumming it with boys from the wrong side of the tracks - except more awesome because there's murder and secret identities! I'm in!
EVC and Madeleine Stowe play off each other really well in an enjoyable battle of composed, ruthless, beautiful ladies. And I am hooked by the idea of Emily/Amanda destroying her enemies, one by one. The only false note was Amanda's 'tough' past, not helped by a truly awful wig.