TV Reviews

Community – For A Few Paintballs More

Following on from last week’s exceptional “A Fist Full of Paintballs,” the second half of Community’s
two-part season finale came to us this week in the form of “For A Few
Paintballs More.” Whilst part one focused on the riot between students
eager to get their hands on the $100,000 prize for being the last man
standing, the second part took us to new levels of paintball wizardry as
the college bands together for a common purpose. It is revealed to us
that the empire-like regime of the ice cream company appearing to be in
charge of the competition is actually a front for Greendale’s rival
learning establishment, City College. Their dean’s plan being to offer
the large prize to students so that they will tear the college apart
trying to win, then offing them one by one with his army of paintball
storm-troopers so that no one claims the winnings. With a premise like
that it really isn’t hard to imagine that seriousness wasn’t exactly a
key point in the execution of this episode. How fun it must have been to
act out everything portrayed on screen I can’t say for sure, but for
anyone who has ever played paintball, the nostalgia will likely have
been rampant when viewing.

The Office – Dwight K. Schrute, (Acting) Manager

As part of a bridge between Michael leaving and the writers deciding
who will be the boss next year (they literally haven’t decided yet), an
episode with Dwight finally in charge was better than I expected. A few
years ago I would have been incredibly excited for such a storyline,
with Dwight being one of my favorite sitcom characters ever, but over
time he’s become more of his own entity on the show, a bit too
specifically weird to fit in with everyone else, as odd as the show
already is. He’s sort of like Kramer from Seinfeld – for a while he was
the highlight of the show at times, but after some time the only joke
left was “boy this guy sure is strange, isn’t he?”, and they told it
over and over. But I was pleasantly surprised by this episode, and if
anything I wish the idea had been extended a bit longer just so there
would be a fuller arc to it.

The Borgias – Death on a Pale Horse

The
latest installment of Showtime’s period piece saw many advances for
the Borgia clan, one quite literally. As French troops led by King
Charles and petitioned by Cardinal Della Rovere press deeper into
Italy, Pope Alexander VI, all of Rome, as well as the viewer, is
wondering how long it will be until war is at their doorstep. Well, at
least those of us who didn’t study up on fifteenth century
papal history are.

In the
beginning it seemed like the writers were going to again focus on the
romance subplots, which took up much of the last episode, luckily that
wasn’t the case and they were wrapped up quickly so the French
invasion could take center stage. When done right romance can be as
compelling as political intrigue, but in the case of The Borgias
they seem to distract more than add to the story or the characters’
depth. It was also wise to let Juan fall back out of the
spotlight as his performances haven’t wowed. He’s good for a little
comic relief but that’s it; his affair with his younger brother’s
newly betrothed failed to garner interest. And while Cesare and
Lucrezia were dealing with matters of the heart, their attentions
were quickly redirected on what impact the French army would have on
the razor’s edge upon which their family already walks. Their
conversation before Lucrezia returned to Pesaro was excellent, as
they always are, the actors’ chemistry elevating what is written on
the page. The somber tone of their talk made it even better than
their previous lighthearted chats and helped reinforce how much
Lucrezia is maturing in such a short time, and how dark the days have
become for the House of Borgia. Though it does make one wonder if
Neil Jordan plans to take their relationship down the dark path that
rumors suggested it went. In a series that seems to be based more on
historic rumor than on fact, it seems likely.

Bob’s Burgers – Weekend at Mort’s

The eleventh episode of Bob’s Burgers is a great treat for anyone who has been watching the series from the beginning as it brings back characters and gags from previous episodes. It starts off with a green mold growing in the restaurant that requires a visit from the health inspector Hugo. He tells them that the restaurant will need to be tented for 48 hours. Whereas Bob looks at it as a complete loss of weekend profits, Linda sees it as an opportunity for them to have the honey moon they’ve never had.

The Killing – Vengeance

Though I was excited to see Ed
Bianchi (one of my favorite directors) taking the reigns for a second
time in the series, even he couldn’t elevate this episode into
something worthwhile. The plot and characters did see some
development, but it wasn’t enough to make day seven of the
investigation into Rosie Larsen’s murder a very revealing one, or to
make the episode live up to its name.

Coming off the latest cliffhanger,
The Killing jumped right back in where it left off; with Stan
Larsen driving to an unknown destination with the primary suspect in
his daughter’s murder riding shotgun. It was hard to judge what Stan
might do; knowing little of his past other than former ties to the
Polish mob, but I didn’t have much doubt as to Bennet Ahmed making it
home in one piece. I was however expecting Stan to question Bennet
about his relationship with Rosie and found it frustrating not
getting any of those answers, and even though we find out later Stan
was protecting himself from being the man he used to be, I find it
hard to believe he would have walked away without learning something.
Stan did put up a couple of solid performances however; the first
being the one I just mentioned when he explains to Mitch why he let
Bennet go. Hearing how Rosie’s birth changed him was a revealing
moment for both the character and actor, giving me a hope that Brent
Sexton has the chops to do convincing emotional scenes while
delivering dialogue, and not just breaking down alone in a gas
station bathroom. The second great scene was with his two sons. After seeing
news coverage about Rosie’s death the boys wanted to know what actually
happened and were not going to accept Stan’s old answer (“No
more heaven stuff, okay dad?”).
In addition to that powerful line, the choice to shoot the scene
from a distance emphasized how the viewer feels… they can’t comfort
these boys who lost their sister and best friend and neither can
Stan, but like any dad, he tries his best.

Smallville – Prophecy

“Prophecy” is two stories in one. The first would make many cringe, but the second is definitely worth following. The episode starts with Clark meeting Lois at The Daily Planet. She is surrounded by a sea of paper from a potential big story she stumbled upon while finalizing preparation for their upcoming wedding. What follows is the typical fast-paced conversation used to deliver details (the writers believe) that we need to know in order to understand what will follow (a ten-year run and a slew of writers would do that to any show). My sirens went blazing when Clark seemed to embrace Kryptonian values surrounding weddings. Since when did the Fortress qualify as his father? And even if it did, since when did Clark feel so Kryptonian? When his powers were transferred to Lois I was relieved to see the plot device exposed. This is the less appealing story.

Game of Thrones – Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things

A lot of shows settle in after a few weeks of explaining things to
refocus on the current story, though if anything, last night’s Game of
Thrones episode actually had significantly more exposition than the
previous ones. We learned the backstories of a few minor characters, we
learned more about the war that gave Robert the throne and the last
winter, we learned about when places were built and the names of some
dragons. Having already read the books, it’s hard for me to know how
much of this information is really useful, and how much is just window
dressing I’m already familiar with that spices up the reading but can
slow a TV show down a bit. The book worked by bringing you inside the
heads of several significant characters from chapter to chapter, and
needing all of these stories and tidbits to be told in dialogue instead
seemed to bog it down a bit. It’s still a well-made show, and the cast
did a good job of wringing some entertainment out of those speeches, but
I did think it was a little dull in comparison.

Nikita – Betrayals

Despite being burdened with being a show on The CW, Nikita
has been so consistently impressive it’s starting to become ridiculous.
The show has managed to keep a coherent plot throughout so many twists
and turns, all the while throwing action and espionage in our faces to
the largest extent possible. All season long we’ve been building to this
week and despite the grim outlook for the close to the season as of
last week, the finale is now set up to be great.

Fringe – The Day We Died

For the season finale, Fringe
unveiled a new color for the opening credits. The show’s title was dark
instead of the usual silver, and for good reasons. This episode begins
in the future (of This Side) where Peter ended up after getting into The
Machine last week. The year is 2026 and Peter is in his forties. He is
injured in an explosion right away and is taken to the hospital while
having only the memories of our Peter. When he leaves the place not too
long after, he is back to being his 2026 self. The episode is mostly
spent getting us up to speed with what has happened in 15 years and
trying to deal with the impending end of the world.

Parks and Recreation – Eagleton

Season
3 of Parks and Recreation continued this week with an episode that had just about
everything; some brilliant comedic scenes, a couple of endearing
moments, and even a Bizzaro Pawnee. While it might not be an episode
that’s well remembered years from now (they can’t all be), Eagleton
still brought the funny like only Parks and Recreation
can.

Choosing
to use the cold open to setup one of the episode’s two story-lines,
versus just doing a one-off joke, they sacrificed some comedy. Ron’s
date of birth, which he worked so hard to keep hidden was
discovered by his inability to pass up a free scoop of ice cream. Ron, being the epitome of all things manly,
hates having his “friends” gathered around him, and his fear of
what Leslie would do with the information comes to fruition as he’s
tortured with her plans for an extravagant party. Ron is always an
excellent source of comedy and watching him angrily count the days to
his inevitable birthday bash was no exception.
The bristly attitude that never seems to soften for long was
present, but what really provided the laughs was seeing Ron behave
like a caged animal, becoming ever more fearful of what Leslie had
planned for him (“Leslie has
a lot of qualities I find horrifying, but the worst one by far is how
thoughtful she can be“).
An especially impressive feat for Leslie considering she was too
preoccupied with the episode’s other storyline to personally oversee
his misery.