this week in tv
Oct. 11th, 2010 08:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jlhYes, this is not inclusive of tonight's episodes!
HIMYM: So the "where's the poop" thing was a little annoying, even if Alyson sold it, but I like the return of crazy Robin. I also enjoyed the long conversation about the architecture of the Death Star and the eventual payoff of Marshall-as-wingman. Oh and, of course, the Ted/Barney shipping. I've always kinda shipped them too, and now I want to go read piles of Ted/Barney.
Castle: ugh, the fall of the mentor, did we have to go there? It would have been so much more interesting if that had been a fake out. The good girls gone wild b-plot was kind of eh.
Hawaii 5-0: The plots are actually pretty good—and again, it's so nice to not have a serial killer every week because enough, seriously—and I continue to enjoy everything Danno does and his chemistry with McGarrett. I also liked that Danno's knowledge of the Jersey mob helped them solve the crime, and all the stuff with his kid. And I liked the football thing as well, plus another entire episode in which Grace Park remained mostly clothed!
Dancing with the Stars: Oh Margaret. You have to take it seriously for us to vote for you. I'm sad but unsurprised, because you faltered in a week where everyone but Bristol took a big leap forward—and Bristol might have a bigger voting block than you. While Jennifer Grey is fantastic, the rest of the field is remarkably wide open, so it should be a really exciting season.
Glee: As I said onsistermagpie's entry about this ep, the unfortunate thing is that God got conflated with just believing in something other than yourself—the power of love, of friendship, whatever. Kurt's real problem was that he was cutting himself off from all means of support. So when Mercedes sang him "Bridge Over Troubled Water"—which I know has been somewhat co-opted as a religious song but isn't actually religious at all—she was talking about herself. She was talking about friendship and love and stuff, like, come to me. Kurt needs to let himself be vulnerable with the people he trusts; he can't only rely on his father. (Even though it made "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" such a wonderful moment.) But because tv shows only have so much time, they never really made that explicit.
As for the rest of the episode: Rach singing "Papa Can You Hear Me" was pretty as a song but presumptuous and gross in the plot; Finn was shockingly selfish even for Finn; Puck was amazing not only singing "Only the Good Die Young" but also in the way he prayed for Kurt but didn't actually tell him about it; and for the last goddamned time, "Losing My Religion" is not about God.
Top Chef Just Desserts: OMG, and then also, OMG. Showing remarkable restraint for a show on Bravo, they didn't actually show us Seth's freakout, but only the preamble and the aftermath. Gross and unfortunate, but I'm glad for his sake, for the other chefs, and for all of us that he's gone. (That said, Iuzzini is not nearly as comforting and in-command as Colicchio, is he?) Malika seems happy to be gone and I don't blame her; competitive cooking isn't the same as cooking, and as we see on Top Chef Masters there are amazing chefs who just aren't good at what Top Chef does (Jonathan Richman, the Obi-Wan, comes to mind). I didn't understand Heather H's freak out on Morgan at the end; I thought he was remarkably un-assholish this episode.
Community: I watched this twice because I missed the whole Abed background plot (reminiscent of the Buffy ep The Zeppo, one of about four I've seen) and you know, a nice series of sight gags about life in an episode about death was a cute touch. On second viewing I also enjoyed the Annie/Britta/Shirley plot more, I think because there's so much simmering resentment between the three of them and it's better for that to get aired out than to, well, simmer. I also liked the use of John Oliver as both a truth-teller to Jeff and a shit-stirrer with Chang. There was actually like, five plots in this episode: Jeff and his mortality, Oliver and Chang, the ladies and the oil spill, Abed in the background (often over Shirley's shoulder) and Troy and Pierce and Pierce's mom, yet at the time it didn't feel like that much. Very tight writing.
Project Runway: Well, at least we got to see Christopher's hot husband before he was out, and he did make it quite a long way. Ivy, ugh, just stop. I don't have a great sense of who's making the final show, but I hope it's April, Andy and Mondo. I honestly don't see how April and Mondo won't make it unless they have some kind of catastrophic implosion. Since her diaper with the hat April has been in the middle or the top every week, and even the diaper with the hat was bad in an interesting way. Mondo's been even more steadily successful. It's been quite a good season, hasn't it?
HIMYM: So the "where's the poop" thing was a little annoying, even if Alyson sold it, but I like the return of crazy Robin. I also enjoyed the long conversation about the architecture of the Death Star and the eventual payoff of Marshall-as-wingman. Oh and, of course, the Ted/Barney shipping. I've always kinda shipped them too, and now I want to go read piles of Ted/Barney.
Castle: ugh, the fall of the mentor, did we have to go there? It would have been so much more interesting if that had been a fake out. The good girls gone wild b-plot was kind of eh.
Hawaii 5-0: The plots are actually pretty good—and again, it's so nice to not have a serial killer every week because enough, seriously—and I continue to enjoy everything Danno does and his chemistry with McGarrett. I also liked that Danno's knowledge of the Jersey mob helped them solve the crime, and all the stuff with his kid. And I liked the football thing as well, plus another entire episode in which Grace Park remained mostly clothed!
Dancing with the Stars: Oh Margaret. You have to take it seriously for us to vote for you. I'm sad but unsurprised, because you faltered in a week where everyone but Bristol took a big leap forward—and Bristol might have a bigger voting block than you. While Jennifer Grey is fantastic, the rest of the field is remarkably wide open, so it should be a really exciting season.
Glee: As I said on
sistermagpie's entry about this ep, the unfortunate thing is that God got conflated with just believing in something other than yourself—the power of love, of friendship, whatever. Kurt's real problem was that he was cutting himself off from all means of support. So when Mercedes sang him "Bridge Over Troubled Water"—which I know has been somewhat co-opted as a religious song but isn't actually religious at all—she was talking about herself. She was talking about friendship and love and stuff, like, come to me. Kurt needs to let himself be vulnerable with the people he trusts; he can't only rely on his father. (Even though it made "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" such a wonderful moment.) But because tv shows only have so much time, they never really made that explicit.As for the rest of the episode: Rach singing "Papa Can You Hear Me" was pretty as a song but presumptuous and gross in the plot; Finn was shockingly selfish even for Finn; Puck was amazing not only singing "Only the Good Die Young" but also in the way he prayed for Kurt but didn't actually tell him about it; and for the last goddamned time, "Losing My Religion" is not about God.
Top Chef Just Desserts: OMG, and then also, OMG. Showing remarkable restraint for a show on Bravo, they didn't actually show us Seth's freakout, but only the preamble and the aftermath. Gross and unfortunate, but I'm glad for his sake, for the other chefs, and for all of us that he's gone. (That said, Iuzzini is not nearly as comforting and in-command as Colicchio, is he?) Malika seems happy to be gone and I don't blame her; competitive cooking isn't the same as cooking, and as we see on Top Chef Masters there are amazing chefs who just aren't good at what Top Chef does (Jonathan Richman, the Obi-Wan, comes to mind). I didn't understand Heather H's freak out on Morgan at the end; I thought he was remarkably un-assholish this episode.
Community: I watched this twice because I missed the whole Abed background plot (reminiscent of the Buffy ep The Zeppo, one of about four I've seen) and you know, a nice series of sight gags about life in an episode about death was a cute touch. On second viewing I also enjoyed the Annie/Britta/Shirley plot more, I think because there's so much simmering resentment between the three of them and it's better for that to get aired out than to, well, simmer. I also liked the use of John Oliver as both a truth-teller to Jeff and a shit-stirrer with Chang. There was actually like, five plots in this episode: Jeff and his mortality, Oliver and Chang, the ladies and the oil spill, Abed in the background (often over Shirley's shoulder) and Troy and Pierce and Pierce's mom, yet at the time it didn't feel like that much. Very tight writing.
Project Runway: Well, at least we got to see Christopher's hot husband before he was out, and he did make it quite a long way. Ivy, ugh, just stop. I don't have a great sense of who's making the final show, but I hope it's April, Andy and Mondo. I honestly don't see how April and Mondo won't make it unless they have some kind of catastrophic implosion. Since her diaper with the hat April has been in the middle or the top every week, and even the diaper with the hat was bad in an interesting way. Mondo's been even more steadily successful. It's been quite a good season, hasn't it?
