this week in tv
Jan. 20th, 2011 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jlhSo, shows are really back this week. We'll have a good run through the end of February.
HIMYM: "Bad News": I didn't notice the countdown of numbers when I saw this the first time; I only caught a few of them. I think the numbers were probably a mistake because the people who didn't know to countdown seemed to enjoy the ep more, and when I learned of them in retrospect I thought they were kind of lame.
And it's even more too bad because it's actually a very well-crafted episode with many rewards, like the call back to Barney's laser tag obsession (why wasn't he asking Robin to be his partner? Hello, "Zip Zip Zip"!), the Barney doppelgänger, Ted's hatred of Sandy Rivers, Robin's several misadventures captured on You Tube, Marshall's public restroom performance anxiety, Lily's difficult relationship with her mother-in-law.
What got me on the second viewing was when Future!Ted says that Marshall was always thankful that Lily made him tell his parents what was going on when they came to visit, because of course he meant to tell them after he got the results, and by then his dad had passed. Sure, there was some foreshadowing in the show, but as others have pointed out, death often comes as a shock when you're thinking about something else, or you think, "but I just saw them!" Marshall's final line, "I'm not ready for this," was brilliant.
"Last Words": So I thought this episode was pretty much perfect, including how only Ted and Marshall have anything approaching a good relationship with their fathers and the weird way people behave at funerals and the stuff that happens when you live in a small town (ie, your bully ends up being a kind of shitty pastor) and the need for emotional release and the careful handling of the woman in charge and all the damn food around. And then Marshall starts railing at the universe, like you do when this sort of thing happens, and that entire scene was brilliant, and I adore this show.
Hawaii 5-0: I think this show has become my Supernatural or whatever, except rather than finding the characters hot I mostly find them ridiculous and hilarious. I love Jean Smart, too; she was always my favorite on Designing Women and she has a great haircut and feels like a governor. I like that Steve has to answer to a lady who drinks beer from the bottle.
"Ke Kinohi": I love Mary kicking out the tail lights of a car and Kono kicking various ass and Chin being hot and geeky and Danny saying both "Look I don't want to be a nag" and "I've never liked you more than in this moment" and damn, Steve is a crazy motherfucker, isn't he? I mean, the look in his eye when he was coming downstairs after the burglars? Also: Steve met Wo Fat!
"He Kane Hewa'ole": CHiPs! I adore that Kono, like me now and then, thinks that Jon is hotter than Ponch. I also loved the little moment, mid-argument, when Danny said, "Great, we're done, let's just go get a plate lunch!" because aww, he's integrating! Chin once more got to stand around looking hot, I continue to ship Chin/Kono (oh![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kitsune, what have you done to me?), and of course I ship Steve/Danny although the show kinda ships them anyway. (Also Steve/Danny/Kono/Chin OT4.) Next week: Kono gets Danny on a surf board, and we finally get shirtless Danny!
Castle: These two eps were all about relationships more than the mysteries, so let's just skip ahead to that.
I'd heard in the promo for the new season that they were planning on some Javier/Lanie action, and I liked that idea so much, and love Lanie so much, that it kinda put the damper on my Ryan/Esposito shipping. But "Nikki Heat" put me on the Jenny/Ryan/Javier/Lanie OT4 train; that is, it made me really like Jenny. I mean, her middle name is "Scout." Also Javier was brushing away a tear during the proposal! Then in "Poof, You're Dead" we finally saw Javier and Lanie in action and it was nice to see they weren't just fucking, but not-so-secretly dating, which gave Castle and Ryan plenty of opportunities to be jerks, haha. Javier and Lanie always had a flirty, sexy vibe and that totally continued—they are super hot! So there might be a Lanie POV OT4 fic in my future …
As for Castle and Beckett, I'm glad they got rid of the whole Gina thing mostly because they never really used her; they didn't bring her back or have her around all that much except for the bit about Alexis. But what I really loved is the way they did it, so that Beckett reacted to it not as a woman in love who is now rid of a rival, but as Castle's friend who feels sad for him. The ending of "Poof, You're Dead" was really sweet. I adore romances that are built on friendships so I'm digging that the writers are using this time to show us not just their romantic connection but also the real friendship that Kate and Rick have built since they met.
Also it was fun to see both Laura Prepon and Giles Marini, to have Ryan refer to clone armies, and to have Castle dismiss sleeping with the actress who will play Nikki Heat as being "too meta."
White Collar: "Burke's Seven": Yay it's back! So I know some folks were annoyed by the teaser posters that spoiled that Mozzie was fine but come on, this isn't BSG. I'm excited that they are going to wrap up the entire music box situation this season while also giving us some major Neal backstory. I like Sara just fine as a love interest for Neal. I'd like Alex more in terms of chemistry, but in terms of Neal's character arc Sara makes a lot more sense. She isn't quite as antagonistic toward him as she once was, and she's not quite as solidly about lawful good as Peter is, which probably makes her somewhere between Neal and Peter. I think if they do it right it could really work.
I also loved El being back and in the game, both sweet talking Mozzie (she does have the touch with him) and getting that guy off the phone. I love how Peter just looks at her and thinks she's awesome. And Diana continues to be the right hand gal, totally formidable, and Jones and his, "excuse me, I am so on your team, hello" bit is also awesome. And then Hughes came through in the end as he always does! Also, Peter on a horse.
Community: "Asian Population Studies": I knew as soon as I saw the title of this episode a few weeks ago that we'd get confirmation that Shirley is pregnant with Chang's baby. But I like where the episode took it, whether she ultimately works things out with her husband or not. And I really loved how Britta was finally like, "well, it's what Shirley wants." I continue to love Britta and Jeff's friendship, and how they can make each other do stuff and be better. I liked that we got some Troy & Pierce, and Abed pretending to be a robot and still having that connection with Annie—so interesting that Annie texted him about Rich turning her down. I loved the fake out with Jeff running to Rich's house and demanding to be taught how to be good so he can use it for bad ends. And Malcolm Jamal Warner as Shirley's ex in a Cosby sweater his dad gave him? Priceless! The whole kettle corn and Chang thing was sort of silly, but we all know that Jeff gets pointlessly competitive, that's his thing, and very especially with Rich. I liked that the show, rather than turning Rich into a typical sitcom nemesis like Newman, had Jeff react the way he did. I really just adore this show, hard core.
HIMYM: "Bad News": I didn't notice the countdown of numbers when I saw this the first time; I only caught a few of them. I think the numbers were probably a mistake because the people who didn't know to countdown seemed to enjoy the ep more, and when I learned of them in retrospect I thought they were kind of lame.
And it's even more too bad because it's actually a very well-crafted episode with many rewards, like the call back to Barney's laser tag obsession (why wasn't he asking Robin to be his partner? Hello, "Zip Zip Zip"!), the Barney doppelgänger, Ted's hatred of Sandy Rivers, Robin's several misadventures captured on You Tube, Marshall's public restroom performance anxiety, Lily's difficult relationship with her mother-in-law.
What got me on the second viewing was when Future!Ted says that Marshall was always thankful that Lily made him tell his parents what was going on when they came to visit, because of course he meant to tell them after he got the results, and by then his dad had passed. Sure, there was some foreshadowing in the show, but as others have pointed out, death often comes as a shock when you're thinking about something else, or you think, "but I just saw them!" Marshall's final line, "I'm not ready for this," was brilliant.
"Last Words": So I thought this episode was pretty much perfect, including how only Ted and Marshall have anything approaching a good relationship with their fathers and the weird way people behave at funerals and the stuff that happens when you live in a small town (ie, your bully ends up being a kind of shitty pastor) and the need for emotional release and the careful handling of the woman in charge and all the damn food around. And then Marshall starts railing at the universe, like you do when this sort of thing happens, and that entire scene was brilliant, and I adore this show.
Hawaii 5-0: I think this show has become my Supernatural or whatever, except rather than finding the characters hot I mostly find them ridiculous and hilarious. I love Jean Smart, too; she was always my favorite on Designing Women and she has a great haircut and feels like a governor. I like that Steve has to answer to a lady who drinks beer from the bottle.
"Ke Kinohi": I love Mary kicking out the tail lights of a car and Kono kicking various ass and Chin being hot and geeky and Danny saying both "Look I don't want to be a nag" and "I've never liked you more than in this moment" and damn, Steve is a crazy motherfucker, isn't he? I mean, the look in his eye when he was coming downstairs after the burglars? Also: Steve met Wo Fat!
"He Kane Hewa'ole": CHiPs! I adore that Kono, like me now and then, thinks that Jon is hotter than Ponch. I also loved the little moment, mid-argument, when Danny said, "Great, we're done, let's just go get a plate lunch!" because aww, he's integrating! Chin once more got to stand around looking hot, I continue to ship Chin/Kono (oh
kitsune, what have you done to me?), and of course I ship Steve/Danny although the show kinda ships them anyway. (Also Steve/Danny/Kono/Chin OT4.) Next week: Kono gets Danny on a surf board, and we finally get shirtless Danny!Castle: These two eps were all about relationships more than the mysteries, so let's just skip ahead to that.
I'd heard in the promo for the new season that they were planning on some Javier/Lanie action, and I liked that idea so much, and love Lanie so much, that it kinda put the damper on my Ryan/Esposito shipping. But "Nikki Heat" put me on the Jenny/Ryan/Javier/Lanie OT4 train; that is, it made me really like Jenny. I mean, her middle name is "Scout." Also Javier was brushing away a tear during the proposal! Then in "Poof, You're Dead" we finally saw Javier and Lanie in action and it was nice to see they weren't just fucking, but not-so-secretly dating, which gave Castle and Ryan plenty of opportunities to be jerks, haha. Javier and Lanie always had a flirty, sexy vibe and that totally continued—they are super hot! So there might be a Lanie POV OT4 fic in my future …
As for Castle and Beckett, I'm glad they got rid of the whole Gina thing mostly because they never really used her; they didn't bring her back or have her around all that much except for the bit about Alexis. But what I really loved is the way they did it, so that Beckett reacted to it not as a woman in love who is now rid of a rival, but as Castle's friend who feels sad for him. The ending of "Poof, You're Dead" was really sweet. I adore romances that are built on friendships so I'm digging that the writers are using this time to show us not just their romantic connection but also the real friendship that Kate and Rick have built since they met.
Also it was fun to see both Laura Prepon and Giles Marini, to have Ryan refer to clone armies, and to have Castle dismiss sleeping with the actress who will play Nikki Heat as being "too meta."
White Collar: "Burke's Seven": Yay it's back! So I know some folks were annoyed by the teaser posters that spoiled that Mozzie was fine but come on, this isn't BSG. I'm excited that they are going to wrap up the entire music box situation this season while also giving us some major Neal backstory. I like Sara just fine as a love interest for Neal. I'd like Alex more in terms of chemistry, but in terms of Neal's character arc Sara makes a lot more sense. She isn't quite as antagonistic toward him as she once was, and she's not quite as solidly about lawful good as Peter is, which probably makes her somewhere between Neal and Peter. I think if they do it right it could really work.
I also loved El being back and in the game, both sweet talking Mozzie (she does have the touch with him) and getting that guy off the phone. I love how Peter just looks at her and thinks she's awesome. And Diana continues to be the right hand gal, totally formidable, and Jones and his, "excuse me, I am so on your team, hello" bit is also awesome. And then Hughes came through in the end as he always does! Also, Peter on a horse.
Community: "Asian Population Studies": I knew as soon as I saw the title of this episode a few weeks ago that we'd get confirmation that Shirley is pregnant with Chang's baby. But I like where the episode took it, whether she ultimately works things out with her husband or not. And I really loved how Britta was finally like, "well, it's what Shirley wants." I continue to love Britta and Jeff's friendship, and how they can make each other do stuff and be better. I liked that we got some Troy & Pierce, and Abed pretending to be a robot and still having that connection with Annie—so interesting that Annie texted him about Rich turning her down. I loved the fake out with Jeff running to Rich's house and demanding to be taught how to be good so he can use it for bad ends. And Malcolm Jamal Warner as Shirley's ex in a Cosby sweater his dad gave him? Priceless! The whole kettle corn and Chang thing was sort of silly, but we all know that Jeff gets pointlessly competitive, that's his thing, and very especially with Rich. I liked that the show, rather than turning Rich into a typical sitcom nemesis like Newman, had Jeff react the way he did. I really just adore this show, hard core.
