Last Week in TV #29

Another light week as the reruns keep running, so we'll do some more catch-up. Also, I finally got around to finishing Last Resort, which, all things considered, wrapped up about as satisfyingly as we could have hoped for (the wrap-up was more rushed than I would have liked, and some of the smaller details pertaining to the overall plot got brushed past, but at least it wrapped up).

As a series, it definitely started to pick up towards the middle (right around the time word of the cancellation came out), and where I once wondered how it could possibly last more than thirteen episodes, it started to show potential for being a long running series. I'd have liked to see where it went had it continued (and how drawn out the overarching plot would have been had the show stuck around), but at least the episodes we got (especially after some of the early time-killers) managed to tell a finite, largely compelling and consistently entertaining story.

Anyways, on to shows still on the air!

Last Week in TV #24

Another short week, thanks to Mrs. Teebore's absence and the end of February sweeps, so the networks are safe to go back to scheduling new episodes intermittently until May. I am about three episodes from the end of Last Resort (which is really picking up some plot momentum as it goes along; I'm enjoying it) and finally finished the first season of Revenge, and started the second.

Anyways, here's some newer stuff I did watch this week. 

The Simpsons: Gorgeous Grampa

Someone on the writing staff must really like Grampa. In just a few months this season, we've got one episode that revealed he used to be a lounge singer married to a heroin addict, and now we've leaned he also used to be a famous professional wrestler. While it's never a good idea to get too worked up about continuity when it comes to this show (and nothing in this episode overtly contradicted this), when Mr. Burns was trying to convince Grampa to wrestle once again, I couldn't help but recall the time we learned the pair had been in the same company in World War II, and then Mr. Burns tried to kill Grampa to get the Hellfish bonanza for himself. Seems like something that would have been worth mentioning.

Last Week in TV #7

Things in TV Land should pick up next week with the start of November sweeps, though we did get a lot of good Halloween episodes (I love Halloween on TV because all the costumes are unrealistically elaborate and everyone can trick-or-treat in temperate, not-near-freezing weather). In addition to what I write about below, I did watch the Halloween episodes of Modern Family, Suburgatory, Big Bang Theory and Happy Endings. I don't have much to say about them (other than to say that you should be watching Happy Endings, the best non-Parks and Rec and Community comedy on TV) but feel free to bring them up in the comments if you're so inclined. 

Once Upon a Time: The Doctor

The revelation that Dr. Whale is Dr. Frankenstein (clever naming, by the way) opens a whole new avenue for this show. While it's already dipped its toes into the characters of public domain novels, in the forms of such characters as the Mad Hatter and Captain Hook, most of those dalliances involved characters with some ties to Disney. Frankenstein is the first literary character the show has used without any strong connection to the world of fairy tales and/or Disney. It opens a (potentially) troublingly deep well of characters, but with this episode making clear something the show has hinted at before, that there are all kinds of different "realms" (some a conglomerate of stories like Fairy Tale Land while others represent a specific fictional story like Wonderland or Neverland), each accessible by various magical items (like the Hatter's hat), with Storybrooke/the real world as just one more such realm, I think this expanded well of characters can ultimately work to the show's advantage. So long as the writers continue to find new and clever ways to re-imagine the characters and work them into the ongoing narrative (and in the case of someone like Dr. Whale, explain why he got pulled into Storybrooke by the curse that was placed on FTL), I have no objections to seeing a wide and varying range of public domain characters pop up on the show. 

Last Week in TV #6

Between baseball and presidential debates, a lot of shows took this week off. Which is good, since I had a busier than usual week. Here then is a shorter-than-usual post.

Once Upon a Time: The Crocodile

Judging from all the pre-season hype, the show intends to poise Hook as this season's Big Bad, or at least one of them. This episode served as alright introduction to him, though we have yet to really see OUAT's take on the character (most of this episode he was Almost Hook). I prefer my pirates with a little less angsty eyeliner, but I suppose that's the world Johnny Depp has created. The climatic moment when Hook picks up the, um, hook, would have resonated more if we didn't already know he was Hook thanks to all the ads/interviews/press releases, etc. I don't even go out of my way to look at that stuff and I still knew he was coming. That said, as the show continues to soften the edges of Regina and Mr. Gold, more villains is not a bad thing.

Last Week in TV #5

I was away from the house last night, so no new Thursday night shows this week. But here's what I did watch: 

Once Upon a Time: Lady of the Lake

It's good to know that whether in Storybrooke or Fairy Tale Land, Emma can be an insufferable ass. I know she's lost her bearings and has parental issues, but it's really not the best time or place to question every frickin' thing your mom says, especially when your mom happens to be a former queen of the land in which you find yourself. I really hope the little mother/daughter moment the pair shared at the end of episode means Emma will be a little less grating during her time in FTL.

Last Week In TV #4

Here we go, with another big week, including some Halloween episodes. Glee is taking a few weeks off (presumably because of baseball on Fox), so we'll talk about this week's episode in next week's post.

The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XXIII

More amusing than funny, which seems to be the trend with more recent Halloween episodes. Each of the three segments (four, if you count the opening) offered a few chuckles ("Cinnamon!" drew the biggest laugh from me, and I also enjoyed Homer's 42 minute morning pee) but the audible laughs were pretty sparse. Of the three, "Bart and Homer's Excellent Adventure" was probably my favorite; I'm a sucker for a good Back to the Future homage (lack of any connection to Halloween notwithstanding), and I appreciated the effort put into recreating the setting of season two's "The Way We Was".

Last Week in TV #3

Our biggest posts of the new season (remember when I pretended these were going to be shorter this season?), as a bunch of returning shows premiere and I continue to catch up from some irregular vacation viewing. Also, I watched the premieres of Modern Family and Elementary, but didn't make the time to write about them, so feel free to sound off on them in the comments if you're so inclined.

The Simpsons: Moonshine River

While the central premise of the episode was interesting (Bart looking up old girlfriends to find out what keeps turning off women from him), I don't think it was taken as far as it could have been, and the much-hullabalooed gamut of actresses returning to voice their various "Bart's girlfriend du jour" characters amounted, with the exception of Zooey Deschanel's Mary, to little more than a word each. It's also one of those plots that would have worked better if the show allowed its characters to age, such that Bart was a few years older when grappling with the issues he confronts in this episode. Meanwhile, the Marge/Lisa "finding cheap culture in New York" subplot contained some great gags (I especially enjoyed their attempts to see a Broadway show and the Baldwin/Sheen-Estevez feud).