Review - Community Season 2 Episode 24 For a Few Paintballs More

The second season of Community wraps up with a very strong episode, but did we expect anything less? Continuing from last week’s Western-themed paintball, “For a Few Paintballs More” is more community oriented with strands of Star Wars.

There are great scenes in there—Abed as Han kissing Annie during the paint shower, the return of Magnitude (pop pop!), the final shootout—and the episode also resolves a long-running problem, Pierce. He saves the day for Greendale, but when the group asks him to rejoin, he declines.

I've been trying to decide which of the three paintball episodes was my favorite, and I think I'll have to go with the first one, if only for the sheer shock factor. While "For a Few Paintballs More" doesn't parody a genre as the action movie or Western episodes did, the episode was still incredible all around and it's hard to find anything wrong with it.


Score: 9.5/10

Review - Glee Season 2 Episode 20 Prom Queen

The standard good episode for an episode of Glee has become an episode that doesn't forget about the characters and do something crazy. "Prom Queen" doesn't go too far out on a limb and ends up being a pleasant episode along those lines. With prom coming up, it exposes lots of feelings and the writers included most of the characters, without having too much nonsensical things at the same time.

Whose idea was it to bring back Jesse St. James? It was so bizarre how he magically popped up after everyone forgot about him. And after getting in a push fight with Finn (punches are for sissies), Jesse doesn't show up again. Did Jesse need to be there in order for Finn to show how much he cares about Rachel? Not really. Sue... I don't even want to talk about her.

Score: 8.6/10

Blogger outage

Blogger was down for most of yesterday, so I wasn't able to write reviews for the shows I did watch (Community and TBBT). In addition, posts from Wednesday had to be removed, so reviews of The Good Wife, Glee, and Breaking In are gone, as well as a ratings post for Tuesday. The Blogger blog says they're restoring those posts, but as of now, things remain the same for this blog.

Review - NCIS Season 8 Episode 23 Swan Song

The premise of "Swan Song"--Gibbs coping with Mike Franks' death--seemed a little implausible to me. I think it's just me, but I found it really odd that Gibbs would just call Mike and Mike would show up like that and then get killed. As for the death itself, I never cared that much about Mike, but the reactions to his death was what really mattered and the actors did a good job with that.

That last scene was really intense--and I'm not kidding--like Breaking Bad or The Shield intense. Now the question is, will more people die in the season finale? Given NCIS's track record, I wouldn't be surprised if EJ and her team die.

Score: 8.9/10

Numbers of Interest - Television Ratings for Monday 5/09/11

ABC won with Dancing with the Stars (4.2) and Castle (3.1). Castle still going very strong. Makes you wonder if ABC might put another show in the timeslot next season.

FOX was second with House (3.0) and The Chicago Code (1.7). I guess House is sticking in the low 3s now. The Chicago Code is still in hot water.

CBS was third with How I Met Your Mother (2.6), Mad Love (1.9), a repeat of Two and a Half Men (1.8), Mike & Molly (2.3), and Hawaii Five-0 (2.3). CBS is really hemorrhaging viewers on Mondays.

NBC was last with Chuck (1.4), The Event (1.1), and Law & Order: Los Angeles (1.2). NBC sucking across the board. If it makes Chuck fans feel any better, The Event and LOLA did worse than it.

Review - Chuck Season 4 Episode 23 Chuck Versus the Last Details

Again, I wonder how the fourth season of Chuck would have looked if NBC had originally given it a full season order. There is a lot going on in "Chuck Versus the Last Details," probably more than a single episode could handle, what with Casey and Morgan, Elizabeth, Ellie, Chuck and Sarah, and the plot. Still, the writers managed to hit the key points and provided some of the closure for the possible penultimate episode of the series.

Heading into the season finale, it's guaranteed Sarah will survive. If this were a Joss Whedon show, it would probably be another story. Then again, it'd probably be canceled long before the fourth season. Anyway, Vivian Volkoff is on the loose and basically as crazy as her father is, refusing to listen to reason and being angry at Chuck.

On the topic of ratings, Chuck's have been terrible--like NBC's other shows (except for The Voice). Even with budget cuts and a rabid fan base, the current ratings in the low 1s might not be enough. My personal opinion is that I don't really care anymore. I cared a lot about renewal back in season 2--yes, I even bought a sub--but my feelings have faded over the years. Chuck is still a decent show, but not one of my priorities. Will I feeling sad if Chuck is canceled? Maybe a little, but it certainly won't be a burden.

Score: 8.8/10

Review - United States of Tara Season 3 Episode 7 The Electrifying And Magnanimous Return Of Beaverlamp

As United States of Tara passes over the midway point of the season things are pretty good, relatively speaking. Max is getting his band together, Tara isn't going crazy all, and Kate commuter friend opens up to her. But we know it won't last forever and there are many hints in the episode that everything will go terribly wrong, culminating with Tara's college alter cutting herself.

There is a lingering question of where the series will go from here. Since Hattaras is stops treatment, is there a medical solution? There is heavy implication that Max had another kid to help cope with Tara, and he seems to realize that. Will he stay indefinitely? Lots of questions are swirling and the season still has a ways to go.

Score: 9.0/10

Review - Sanctuary Season 3 Episode 15 Wingman

OK, now I'm getting confused about Sanctuary. It was given a 20 episode third season, more than the usual 13 for cable shows. The season began amazingly with the Hollow Earth arc which ended at episode 11, halfway through the season. I presumed at the time that the writers would have another arc to fill out the rest of the season; instead, four episodes later, we're still at the filler episode stage.

Why is this? If the Hollow Earth arc was the only arc this season, why not stretch it out through the whole season? Why finish it in the middle of the season? "Pax Romana" or "Hollow Men" would have been a great episodes to end the season.

That brings me to the next point, which is that the writers seemed to run out of ideas in last night's episode. "Wingman" is not a clip show--or is a very, very robust clip show--but interspersed through the episode are random clips from previous episodes--Magnus being badass, Will's romances, Henry doing awesome things, Henry failing--and they are hardly pertinent to the episode. Could the writers really not find a couple more minutes of content? Is this a budget issue?

Score: 8.3/10

Review - Castle Season 3 Episode 23 Pretty Dead

"Pretty Dead" reminded me of one of the reasons why I didn't want to review Castle week to week: it's a very normal, plain episode coming after a great episode. I have no problems with the episode itself, but the character interactions were the same asin most episodes. However, I do find it odd that the writers can write an episode like "To Love and Die in L.A." which has lots really funny lines and developments Castle and Beckett, and then turn around with the usual stuff.

Score: 8.4/10

Review - Stargate Universe Season 2 Episode 20 Gauntlet

I was going to write a long Stargate retrospective, but had no extra time the past few weeks, so I'll try to write one the next episode. And since I have no time this week, this review won't be long either.

While "Gauntlet" wasn't intended to be a complete series finale, it certain worked as one. The crucial plot elements are resolved rather easily (drone plot device, broken pods plot device), and as the crewmembers are placed in stasis there are a number of sendoffs. Everyone says goodbye and Eli volunteers to be to one who stays behind. Destiny gracefully slips into subspace and that's that.

It's a touching episode to be sure, and certainly had its moments. But the thing that struck me was that we're reminded how little these characters have been developed in the sphere of their former lives. Do we care about Scott and his son? Greer's problems? Young's wife? The best developed backstory, Eli and his mother's, had the most emotional weight and was by far the best.

Score: 8.5/10

Review - How I Met Your Mother Season 6 Episode 23 Landmarks

Boy am I glad this thing is finally over. Zoey is an awful character. The Arcadian arc is awful. When it comes to this arc, nothing seems to make sense. Zoey is a crazy psycho bitch, Ted seems to like her, and the center of it all is this old building. Who the fuck cares other than the crazy bitch?

The sad thing about this all is how it makes Ted look. He really cares about Zoey and her insanity, but I don't see how anyone watching could accept that. Whenever the Arcadian came up, Zoey turned into an unlikable, vindictive, unfunny character, while Ted just accepted that. On the bright side, Zoey should be gone now, so maybe the writers will move on something important... like the Mother.

Score: 8.2/10