TV Reviews

Breaking Bad – Open House

The women took center stage in “Open
House,” and while one was building herself up; the other was
falling apart. Flexing its comedic muscle with this episode,
Breaking Bad showed it has not lost its sense of humor,
despite its subject being darker than ever. The episode did however
feel like the inevitable comedown from the high-strung tension of the
previous two.

The cold open was a gambit of emotions
for Walt, as he starts his day at the lab. Reminiscing fondly over
Gale’s chemistry-born coffee maker, Walt smiling to himself is
quickly cut short as he follows the memory all the way down. Gale’s
death has definitely had the least effect emotionally on Walt, who is
too preoccupied with paranoia over Gus’s next move to register guilt
or mournfulness. Those feelings crashing home -even for a brief
instant- proved Walt’s conscience is not completely hollowed out yet.
His obsession over what Gus intends returned quickly though, as he
spots the new security camera. At this point, Walt is so on edge
that he is looking for reasons to be angry with Gus, and the
security camera is the perfect excuse; despite Walt knowing it is a
completely reasonable move after what he and Jesse did. For Walt,
waiting for a retaliation is becoming as bad as the retaliation
itself would be. Being powerless has him so frazzled all he can do
is defiantly and fruitlessly “flip the bird” to the camera.

Louie – Subway/Pamela

It’s amazing how much humor C.K. is
able to squeeze out of both surreal and heartbreaking moments. He
was at it again with “Subway/Pamela.” Louie’s dual adventures
take the audience on a journey to see where the comic’s material
comes from, as well as hanging out with Louie’s friend, the always
hilarious, Pamela Adlon. The character’s underlying want for
affection was present in both stories, and while it wasn’t the
funniest, the episode rose far above what is expected from a typical
comedy.

While Louie’s trip on the subway lasted
only a few minutes, it was comprised of very impressionable scenes.
Rather disturbing, there was still something to appreciate in the
stunning contrast between the tranquil beauty of the violin player
and the raw, repulsive vagrant washing himself. Louie -who has seen
much worse- is less shocked by a man using a subway platform as his
shower, than he is disgusted by having the violin music interrupted
by such loathsome figure. What it says about the character, and
likely much of the audience that felt the same way, is something we
don’t want to think about. Which is exactly why C.K. brings it up.
We should feel pity, or at the very least not contempt for one who
has fallen so low in society. But once the initial disbelief at the
sheer bizarreness of it all passes, you can’t help but think, “How
dare he?” Which is soon replaced with the appropriate sense of
guilt over so callously forgetting the man’s misfortunes. Not
exactly a humorous moment, but one that still had the comic’s mark
all over it.

Wilfred – Conscience

Coming off the series’ best episode
last week, “Conscience”
was right behind it in terms of laughs. As the title suggests, Ryan
is struggling with the angel on one shoulder and the
devil-in-a-dog-costume on the other, a struggle that leads to some
uproarious moments. The episode did have some dry spots, but it was
saved by again making one-liners and witty dialogue the primary
source of comedy.

The episode’s driving force was Jenna’s
boyfriend, Drew. Played by Chris Klein (American Pie), the
character was a humorously annoying blend of a frat-guy jock and a
smarmy salesman. The kind of guy you would hate to be around, but
would love to watch others have to endure. Which is exactly what our
pair of protagonists are doing, as Drew brags to Ryan about putting a
man out of business, and demoralizes Wilfred by dominating him
physically. (Does Jenna really have the right to call Drew out on his
bragging when she just got a hospice shut down in the last episode?)
Klein brought an insanely high level of energy to the character.
Especially in the ping-pong scene, in which he also nailed Drew’s
obsessive need to win and poor sportsmanship.

Falling Skies – Sanctuary, Part 2

“Sanctuary,
Part 2” took from the previous episode the bad and left out the good.
The conclusion to the two-parter essentially failed to make us care for
the story and for the characters who were in danger. With the Sanctuary
getting more screen-time than the 2nd Mass, the episode also reinforced a
notion I touched on before: Less of Tom Mason is bad for Falling Skies.

Tom
Mason’s children are well-developed characters, but they are so badly
portrayed that I find myself caring about them by proxy, meaning through
their father, and preferably when he is around. Other characters — like
Rick — just stand around, not saying much, obviously waiting for the
plot to decide to use them. The third group of hopeless cases is
represented by Rick’s father, Mike, who is so inconsistent that his
actions are clearly dependent on whatever the writers need (in the plot)
at any given time. With this assortment of characters in the Sanctuary,
a place filled with strangers who all looked suspicious, I found myself
hoping for lines from (and shots of) Lourdes, the normally tiresome
fervent believer.

True Blood – Me and the Devil

Last week’s True Blood
was probably the worst episode in the show’s history. With basically
nothing at all happening and avenue upon avenue of potential being
closed, I was less than interested in seeing what the vampire drama had
in store on Sunday. Much to my surprise “Me and the Devil” didn’t suck,
but it was still only a stepping stone towards the level that the show
needs to be at to make the fourth season one that anyone should watch
again. The strengths of the episode actually came largely from the
supporting characters and perhaps the best of all of the storylines came
from Tommy and Sam.

Entourage – Home Sweet Home

So Entourage
is back. Following what was undoubtedly the weakest season in the
show’s previous seven, I was skeptical about the eighth and final season
of the show really having anywhere to go with Vince crashing out on
cocaine and getting booked for possession. Sufficed to say, I was wrong.
With only eight episodes in this final season there really is no time
for the show to mess around in getting to its point and that urgency was
more than reflected by the writers in “Home Sweet Home,” making it one
of the best episodes of the show that I can recall.

Breaking Bad – Thirty-Eight Snub

Where the season premier’s greatness
lied in just two scenes, this episode’s enjoyment was spread
throughout. “Thirty-Eight Snub” was a study in the reactions
people experience after a traumatic event, and though its subject was
not lighthearted, the writing found some moments of mirth. The
subplots failed to entertain, but this episode’s core focus – the
effect last week’s events have had on some of the characters –
deserved the screen time it got.

The episode again wasted no time in
explaining how it received its title. Besides revealing Walt’s
current mindset, the act of him buying a gun in the cold open could
have felt drawn out, if not for some clever dialogue to keep the
viewer entertained. Jim Beaver (Supernatural)
also assisted the scene and his witty repartee with Walt was
giving me flashbacks to his character in Deadwood.
Walt’s own reaction to seeing Gus kill Victor is a knee-jerk defense
mode. Walt may have once tried to avoid murder and look for another
solution, but those days are behind him. Now he readily accepts it
as the only way out of his problem.

Louie – Country Drive

Louie has always been known as a
show able to find humor in taboo subjects, almost as well known as it
is for doing very much with very little. “Country Drive” took
both of those aspects to new levels. Essentially with just three extended
scenes – including C.K.’s standup segment – the episode proved, like
all Louie episodes, that
if you need bells and whistles to entertain an audience, you aren’t
trying hard enough.

The
first third of the episode saw
Louie and his girls, Jane and Lilly, on the road to visit Louie’s Great
Aunt Ellen. Jane was a pretty steady source of humor, and more
for just her repeated “I’m bored!” line. There was also some
great flute playing overlaying the trip that felt like the perfect
theme for the montage of road scenes. The real musical highlight,
though, came with Louie lip-synching to The
Who’s “Who Are You?” For nearly three minutes, he
emphatically sang along to the track, while “air guitaring” and
making erratic gestures at Jane and Lilly. And every single second
of it was gold. The only thing topping Louie’s show was the girls’
reactions to it. They both scored great laughs, as Jane tries – and
fails – to cover her own giggling, and Lilly shifts from complete
apathy, to looking as though she is fearing for her life when Louie’s
performance reaches its most intense moments.

Haven – Fear & Loathing

The
general expectation for the episode following a season premiere is a
drop of intensity and overall quality. If you take into account the fact
that last week’s episode — though more than acceptable — was slightly
disappointing, you will understand why my expectations for “Fear &
Loathing” were rather low. I must admit, however, that I couldn’t have
been more wrong. Haven followed through with a gripping story
in which no frame was wasted, no dialogue missed the mark, and no drop
of intensity occurred. I have liked many episodes of Haven
before, but it was always because some characters and some aspects of
the storyline stood out and drowned the rest. Until now, no episode
stood the test of a more “structural” approach because they all
invariably failed in at least one of what I would consider the basic
building blocks of storytelling on TV.

Wilfred – Respect

With “Respect,” Wilfred came back from the mediocrity of the last few weeks to put up its funniest episode to date. With a heavy emphasis on well-written dialogue instead of physical gags and crass humor, the series proved it can do more than go after the lowest common denominator.