It's hard to get excited about The Walking Dead these days. The episodes seem to have progressively more grating moments as the season goes on. Take this week's episode. The theme of the episode--what to do with a potential dangerous prisoner--isn't exactly exciting, but it's workable. What results, however, is an hour where all the debates turn into annoying screeds from Dale who flits from one person to the other, trying to explain to them why they would support his position. It's fairly tedious as it drags on, nestled between an even dumber plot, Carl being an idiot. In an obscenely telegraphed scene, we see Carl lure out of the mud the zombie who eventually gets Dale.
What struck me about this week's The Good Wife episode is how much the show is dependent on a really good law plot. The suicide video was pretty good, but it never grabbed me in a way the main plots often do. There were no moments when I was on the edge of my seat, gleefully thinking how great it was. The twists were few and not very potent. So I found myself apathetic to the episode even though I found the rest of the plots quite interesting, though obviously not the best the show has given us. The show is still setting up the plots for the end of the season and we can see all the complications arising, from Peter's political aspirations interfering with professional and personal codes to Alicia's potential jealously (not sure if that's the right word to use) of Caitlin.
For all of the controversy over GCB's previous name--Good Christian Bitches--the show was a lot less crass than I expected it to be. In fact, the show really doesn't seem that noteworthy. There are the typical soap opera plots and then the religious stuff is tacked on in an attempt to show some contrast. The result is a show which is actually not that bad, but definitely not must-watch television.
Okay, so Once Upon a Time delivered yet another underdeveloped yet supremely sappy love story, but I have to comment on one thing: dwarves coming from eggs. How great was that?
Charlie's death at the end of Breakout Kings season two premiere sets the tone for the rest of the season--that this is serious business--but it's hard to say whether this was an inspired creative decision or simply a budgetary matter or Laz Alonzo wanting out. But what we end up with is a smaller cast, allowing for slightly more focus on the remaining characters and a criminal on the loose. Breakout Kings will never be that special of a show, especially in comparison to other offerings on Sunday nights; what it offers, though, is a decent procedural on Sunday for those who don't want to slog through CSI: Miami.
The theme of Spartacus was woman issues. It all seems rather unrealistic--as most of the show is--but I guess that's never really the point of the show. So we got some interesting scenes with the women and a couple advancements of plot.
I'd like Grimm to, just once, explain to viewers what the characters on the show actually see. From what I can tell, it's arbitrary what the rules are. Mainly, I want to know whether wesens can instantly recognize Nick as Grimm and if not, how they eventually tell, and whether Nick sees them in creature form. I don't even want to know who the captain is! It bothers me so much to see all this stuff going on that seems to be for cheap effects for the audience and not for the characters.
I'm ready to call The Office's Sabre Florida experiment a bust. It's far too wacky to be taken seriously, and none of it is really that funny. One thing the plot could have done is to allow the people back at Scranton something worthy to do, but instead they're just as silly those who went away.
Parks and Recreation was very fun with the arrival of Kathryn Hahn's character and unique way Pawneeans drink from the water fountain.
Psych's return reminded me of how fun the show is. The Indian Jones-esque plot was good and Despereaux return, death, revival, and escape was all nicely done.
I haven't really said much about Criminal Minds this season, mostly because there hasn't been much to say, but last week's episode was notable for its sheer awfulness. Criminal Minds writers and directors sometimes get caught up in this idea that people pretending to be normal can be more terrifying than people killing others, and we get these shots of people's blank faces and we're supposed to understand that there's something dark and sinister hiding underneath the eyes. This is fine--as long as it doesn't take up the whole episode. Unfortunately, last week's episode had a whole lot of people's faces and not much else.
Justified: Quarles is a great villain. On the outside, he seems like a cool, level-headed guy, with a mechanical contraption to make carefully executed kills. However, as we learn more about him, he doesn't have to all together.
Breaking Bad's Badger as Agent Dorneget on NCIS was hilarious and he meshed well with the rest of the team. This is his second time on the show so I hope we see him more often.
Smash's fourth episode seem a bit different than the previous episodes, more flowery and unrealistic, almost Glee-like. Ivy being mean to Karen could have been expected, but two parts--Karen getting new friends and them teaching her things and performance at Lyle's place with Lyle helping--were far more than the grounded show we saw before.
Castle can be quite a dynamic show in the number of weird/funky scenarios it throws at the audience in one episode. Last week's episode dove into fairy tale world (possible in an attempt for some cross-promotion with Once Upon a TIme) and into the past, and it came together nicely in the end.
I like that How I Met Your Mother is finally moving Ted forward. It looks like it'll be a while before we learn who the mother is, but we're getting there, slowly but surely.
