Last Week in Pop Culture #19

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This week, I've got one review up for Sound on Sight, looking at All New X-Men #23, the third part of the "Trial of Jean Grey" crossover, as well as a feature on Cyclops and Jean Grey, part of February's "Best Comic Book Romances" theme. 

Once Upon a Time: The New Neverland

One of the benefits to moving the action back to Storybrooke, even though the whole Pan storyline hasn't completed, is that it gives us a chance to see the characters decompress while they think the threat is over, something that rarely happens.

It was genuinely kind of sad that nobody cared Regina came back, and I'm glad Snow wasn't a bitch about it and stuck up for her. 

I'm also glad Emma knew fairly early that something was wrong with Henry - obviously, with only two episodes left, they couldn't drag this out very long, but that works to the show's advantage.

I'm still confused about the Hipster Darlings...like, they were once younger than Wendy, right? So now they're older than her (since she's been in timeless Neverland), but they're not *that* much older. Why not? Whatever. That's probably the last we'll see of them. 

How awesome would it be if Henry had gotten stuck in Pan's body so that Jared Gilmore was done playing Henry? 

I've seen better animated figures than Medusa in video games. From 1995.

Last Week in Pop Culture #5

Once Upon a Time: Quite a Common Fairy

Considering this is ABC/Disney we're talking about, that was a pretty surprising admission of Mulan's feelings for Aurora, wasn't it? I mean, it wasn't like they came right out and said it, but the subtext was darn near text for two characters ostensibly based on stars of animated Disney films.

Henry's line about his family having a thing about apples was pretty great, and as much as Henry often bugs me, I have to give him credit for actually trying to shoot Pan instead of play along (as much as we knew Pan wouldn't get hit).

And while it only portends more focus on Henry, I do like the idea that he is significant because he's the child of parents born of the greatest light and the greatest darkness. But I'm a sucker for stuff like that. 

Last Week in Pop Culture #2

Real life got in the way this week, leaving me little time in the evening to watch TV, so I've quickly fallen behind on several shows. But, let's talk about some things I have watched!

The Simpsons: Homerland
Not a terrible episode, but I probably would have enjoyed it more if I was more familiar with Homeland. I know the broad strokes (solider brainwashed into being a terrorist, crazy CIA agent, Mandy Patinkin has a huge beard), but that's about it.

Also, if you haven't heard, Fox announced that Simpsons will be back for a 26th (!!!) season next year.

Last Week in TV #37

Wrap-Up Weeks continue, as Revolution ends its first season and we finish our coverage of Parks and Recreation. Look for one final post before I take a break for the summer next week, finishing up Community and Glee.

Revolution: The Dark Tower

I'm not terribly surprised this show turned the power back on (though I will admit I was a little worried that the episode was going to end after Aaron clicked the enter key, leaving the reveal of whether the power turned on or everyone was killed by exploding nanobots for the second season premiere); there are plenty of stories to tell about a world where the power was off, and now is suddenly back on, just as there were many stories that could have been told about a world without power. After a relatively slow-building first half of the season, this show decided that breakneck plotting was the way to go, thus making it clear it wasn't all that interested in telling those smaller stories about a world without power. So yeah, let's move things forward. Characterization certainly isn't this show's strong suit, so at least it keeps the plot moving.

Last Week in TV #36

 

With Revolution running out its string for the season, we've got a chance to catch up on some shows on which I've fallen behind. 

Revolution: Clue/Children of Men

Once again things are moving at a breakneck pace, and while that works for a penultimate episode like "Children of Men", the speed at which events move undermines "Clue". A locked-room mystery could be interesting, if done well, especially since so many of the characters in question have legitimate, non-forced reasons to be suspects, but it's clear this show has no interest in slowing down enough to do it justice nor a deft enough hand when it comes to characterization. And so Hudson gets killed off for fairly arbitrary reasons, and the entire cast goes from "not at the Tower" to "banging on its door" within an episode.

Last Week in TV #35

The 2012-2013 network TV season officially ended this week (as of Wednesday night, I believe), but thanks to Revolution continuing to run out its thread, my usual backlog of shows (as well as a few more weeks of Game of Thrones), I've got at least a few more "Last Week in TV" posts coming your way before I take a much needed summer break.  

The Simpsons: The Saga of Carl/Dangers on a Train (season finale)

As far as latter day Simpsons episodes go, "The Saga of Carl" is one of the more original episodes we've seen in a long time. Carl as a character isn't someone who's received a lot of attention, and the concept of male friendship is something the show hasn't really examined much before. There was also some really strong animation in the Iceland scenes, giving the whole thing a look that was different than Springfield but still very much in the show's aesthetic.

Last Week in TV #33

We are now well into May sweeps, and shows are starting to wind down. To that end, I held off on some Glee, Parks and Rec and Community coverage (three shows that have already bowed but which I'm behind on) from this post in order to maximize my time and not fall behind on others, so expect some multi-episode coverage of those shows in the remaining last few weeks of the season. 

The Simpsons: Whiskey Business

I probably would have enjoyed this episode more if Moe's misanthropy and self-loathing hadn't, through the years, become quite so broad. Before he was a complete and utter sad sack whose suicide attempts were so commonplace they went uncommented on by other characters, there was something interesting and occasionally funny about a constantly-down-on-his-luck Moe. But that character trait has been so beaten into the ground over the years that it's lost all meaning and impact (I mean, how many times now has Moe almost achieved success only to have it snatched away because of his ugliness, be it physical or emotional?), thus undercutting some of the more interesting things in this episode.

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 #28

Well, it's a good thing I was lazy the last couple of weeks and held some reviews back, because with Walking Dead and Game of Thrones getting their own posts and most everything else taking a break on account of Easter/April, this would be an even shorter post without a few of the hangers-on. 

Once Upon a Time: Selfless, Brave and True

In terms of episodes involving a flashback featuring a ruggedly handsome character going on a vague and quasi-mystical journey in an Asian country, this one exceeds "Stranger in a Strange Land", the "Origin of Jack's Tattoos" episode of Lost, though that is admittedly a pretty low bar to hurdle. Compared to the previous two episodes of this series, this was a step down, largely let down by some more dodgy CGI and laughably-convenient plotting (see below). Most of it was setup for the villains and arc that will, presumably, carry us through to the end of the season, and I can't deny there isn't something intriguing about a group of people who are after the magic in Storybrooke despite not hailing from Fairy Tale Land, even though Tamara herself is still pretty one-dimensional and hard to care about.

Last Week in TV #27

Due to some other projects, the never ending crush of time (and some laziness), I'm once again leaving some stuff in the queue, so Glee, Community and Parks and Rec reviews will have to yet once again. In the meantime, here's what I've got for this week. 

Bob's Burgers: It Snakes a Village

The thing I loved the most about this episode was the way Bob was not only not grossed out by the elderly swingers, but actually amused by them. It was a nice, subtle subversion of how you'd normally expect the character to act. Everything else with the kids was, of course, fantastic, especially the inconsistent dimensions of the "forest" and Gene's fear of snakes.

Last Week in TV #11

The Simpsons: A Tree Grows in Springfield

Once again, The Simpsons gets to the party late, skewering the iPad long after it moved from the tip of pop culture's tongue. Timeliness issues aside, this episode was a vast improvement over the previous two. While still not terribly funny, it was at least amusing in places, and the last two acts flirted with the kind of introspection/deeper meaning the show was capable of handling in its earlier golden years.

Last Week in TV #10

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving, and remains pleasantly stuffed!

As you may have heard, Last Resort was cancelled last week, with ABC committing to running the remainder of if its full, initial 13 episode order. I do plan to finish the show out, though as I fell a couple episodes behind, the impetus to catch up is lessened by the news of its cancellation. So even though there's no review of the show in this post, I will get back to it soon and write-up the remaining episodes. 

The Simpsons: Penny Wiseguys

Another perfectly average, unexciting episode, one handed over almost entirely to Steve Carell's new character, who didn't quite fit the aesthetic of the show. Lisa once again gets the subplot, raising some interesting questions about the nature of her vegetarianism (I'm curious what Dr. Bitz thought of it) without really doing much with those questions before the plot was quietly shuffled aside. I did enjoy some of the callbacks to past episodes, like the Pin Pals or the picture of the Be Sharps on the wall at Moe's.

Last Week in TV #9

I've fallen behind on Top Chef and Last Resort, so we'll hopefully get to those next week. But no time for jibber-jabber! Onward! 

The Simpsons: Gone Abie Gone

This was a perfectly cromulent episode; it had decent hook, a solid structure, and a mildly entertaining subplot. Too bad it wasn't terribly funny (see the two best exchanges below). I am mildly curious to see if Grampa's newly revealed love interest will ever show up again, but otherwise, this was the very definition of a thoroughly average episode.

Last Week in TV #8

It's Novembers sweeps, so it's a full week, though I did sneak in a showing of Wreck-It Ralph on Thursday, so I'll cover this week's Thursday night shows in the next post. 

The Simpsons: Adventures in Baby Getting

This struck me as another story which would have worked better if the characters were allowed to age, however slowly. The episode at least acknowledged the idea that Maggie is still essentially a baby, but it still felt strange to watch Marge pine for a baby while Maggie is around. That aside, it was a pleasant enough character-based episode for Marge, with some particularly hilarious act breaks (after Marge declares her desire for another baby, Homer thinking, "I should have fixed the faucet"; imagining twins that look like Patty and Selma, Homer screams repeatedly).

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 #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).

Last Week in TV #2

Well, I didn't get a chance to watch last Thursday's Glee, but here's what I did watch in a vacation-shortened week. 

How I Met Your Mother: Farhampton

As most plot/mythology episodes tend to be, this episode was a little sparse on laughs, focusing instead on advancing both the Ted and the Robin/Barney romances and teasing out more hints of the mother. But for what should be/may be the show's final season premiere, that's all right. As someone who has long since given up on caring all that much about the identity of the mother and how the show's various clues to that end connect, caring instead about just watching these characters interact and make me laugh (making me, I guess, this show's version of the people who bugged me for watching Lost in a similar way), I can't deny feeling a certain excitement about knowing the show has reached its endgame. We don't know who the mother is, but we've seen her and Ted together at the place and time where they will meet, and the show still managed to make that feel like a big deal.

Last Week in TV #1

Welcome to the first "Last Week in TV" post of the 2012-2013 season! This is also the beginning of my slightly new approach to these posts. While I enjoy writing about TV every week and this series of posts remains popular amongst you guys, the readers, they are a lot of work. So in an effort to both keep myself from burning out (and thus abandoning the series entirely) and to afford me more time to work on other posts (and maybe even some fiction writing...), I'm going to approach these posts a little bit differently this season.

Instead of long-winded analyses of each episode, expect shorter, in some cases more Twitter-esque, thoughts, followed in some cases by particular lines which tickled my fancy (for comedies) or questions/musings about characters and/or the unfolding plot (for dramas). For Saturday Night Live, I'll no longer run down each sketch, but just comment on my favorite and least favorite sketches in addition to general thoughts on the episode.

Additionally, each season I will devote a standalone post to one show (kind of like my old Lost posts), a show which I feel deserves a longer review, either because I like it or am likely to have a lot to say about it. For now, I'm thinking Walking Dead in the fall/winter (assuming I find a way to watch the show, thanks to Dish Network's ongoing spat with AMC) and Game of Thrones in the spring.