TV Reviews

30 Rock – The Shower Principle

Oh, the never-ending cycle of daily routine. Eat your breakfast, go to work, come home and watch all the TV shows in the world. It’s quite a habit. But Liz will have none of it. While doing her taxes again, she realizes that she’s been saying the same thing every year: it’s a year of change. Time for a change. Liz goes to seek Jack for help, of course, but he’s too busy making up a new plan for Kabletown. He wants to make a change for the company, which isn’t too shocking, since the shareholder meeting is also a dog fashion show. Yes, NBC is going strong. 

Fringe – Nothing As It Seems

“Nothing As It Seems” dealt with the fallout of Olivia’s transformation, and it also revisited a case from the previous timeline — about a more tangible transformation — with many additional twists that made it much more interesting than it originally was.

The Vampire Diaries – The Murder of One

Ok, let’s try this again: The Vampire Diaries is baaaack! With ‘The Murder of One’ we’re actually back to the fast-paced, game changing show we all know and love. And even though this is actually the last episode for three weeks, it was a pretty darn good one. Torture, love, revenge and family, it was all present at this party of crazy town-folk. So let’s re-wind and process every crazy thing that has happened.

Community – Digital Exploration of Interior Design

Community gets dramatic and soapy as Troy and Abed face-off in an epic pillow and blanket showdown. Jeff tries to redeem his jerk-self and Britta falls in love with Subway.These are the Days of our Lives formerly known as Community. For the second week in a row, the quick-witted comedy had some dramatic turns as the feud between Abed and Troy continued to develop slowly, but surely. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think this might have an actual impact on the show’s continuation.

Let’s be serious for a second, because the show obviously is. Last week’s moment of disagreement between the two best friends apparently had a lasting effect on their relationship. In this week’s installment, Abed and Troy tried to build a pillow fort in the school…because blanket forts are too mainstream. 

Alcatraz – The Key Is Everything in the Finale

The first season of Alcatraz bowed out with a finale that was a reflection of the series’ most interesting part, even though the reasons behind the show’s limited success remained palpable during the extended closing episode (“Garrett Sillman”/”Tommy Madsen”).

Fringe – Journeys of Acceptance in ‘A Short Story About Love’

With “A Short Story About Love,” Fringe’s fourth season was in full swing with a seemingly standalone episode used to advance forward with the Olivia and Peter love story. The leads each went through a journey of acceptance, while Olivia was investigating a case with a man trying to engineer a “love potion.”

Shameless – Just Like the Pilgrims Intended

What did I just see? For those who have tried their very best to avoid watching childbirth, there’s no escaping it in this week’s Shameless. I’m not sure why, but the sight of a baby slowly popping out wasn’t necessarily something I would ever want to see on my TV screens. That’s why I avoid baby showers, too. But in an episode filled with naked people, a bloodbath and dead animals, there was very little screen time suitable for the prude and innocent. 

Much like a Thanksgiving turkey, this episode might have looked wild and gritty on the outside but it was chock full of goodness inside. It was basically the same old Shameless that had a purpose for every character and a tragic story to boot. Most tragic of all was Lip, who was occupied with shooting a video message for his unborn child—the one Karen is carrying. 

30 Rock – Grandmentor/Kidnapped By Danger

What a treat! We actually got two episodes for the price of one and they were actually both good. 30 Rock had a stellar outing this week with two of its best episodes of the season. Every other line was quotable and every character was at their best during the production process of “Kidnapped By Danger,” the TV movie that was going to free Avery.

In “Grandmentor,” Jack was having trouble getting the story of his wife’s kidnapping back in the news. He tried to contact Amnesty International, but they turned out to be a candle factory. And when he tried to draw attention by presenting the news, a bunch of infant Chinese miners got trapped and had to be saved by puppies. You can’t beat that kind of cuteness.

Community – Contemporary Impressionists

What an interesting episode. “Contemporary Impressionists” was a classic Community episode in the sense of a stand-alone event, weird antics and personal developments. But it was a stand-out episode concerning one very integral friendship. For the first time, Troy and Abed were at odds.

It all started when Abed was hiring look-alikes to act out scenes from movies. The idea was rather awesome and liberating. Imagine entering the Matrix or saving Middle-Earth, just because you want to. It’s typical Abed and it laid down the very foundations of his free spirit. He did what every fan or geek has thought about at least once and proved that the only limitation is your sense of reality, which is exactly what troubled the group.

The Vampire Diaries – Break On Through

So that was that! Finally, the midseason character development episodes (or whatever you call them) are done and we can get back to the bigger-picture episodes that involve teams, stakes and edge-of-your-seat developments. But it had to get worse before it got better, so this week’s The Vampire Diaries was very much a transition episode. The first half was stuck in a rut, but then the back half left us begging for more.