Solid episodes from the shows I’m watching this week. Perhaps the standout of this week comes from Boardwalk Empire, with the worst offender of the bunch being both the Not!Fringe episode and the lackluster Weeds episode. Seriously, I have some guesses as to how the season is going to end and I hope to Christ it throws me a curve ball. Community was a riot as usual and No Ordinary Family is still pulling me in with solid writing and engaging characters. Check it!
Boardwalk Empire: S1 x 06 – Family Limitation ★★★★☆
We get some serious mobster schtick this week in Boardwalk Empire and it’s all from the Chicago crew. I admittedly squee’d in delight when I saw the pictured characters gun down their adversaries in as close to a Scorsese fashion as possible by someone NOT Scorsese. The guy playing Al Capone plays the role well. I’m interested in seeing how this progresses in paralel to the Atlantic City plot with Nucky Thompson. Also at the forefront is Eli and her sudden attention from Nucky himself and what that means for her life. Seriously, if you aren’t watching this show, you need to be!
Community: S2 x 06 – Epidemiology ★★★★☆
Last year’s Halloween episode was epic, and the clip of Abed as Batman has been played on my computer COUNTLESS times. While this episode wasn’t as groundbreaking, it served perhaps THE MOST HILARIOUS sequence I’ve seen in awhile. Let’s just say it involves an old horror film trope I don’t particularly like and it involves an animal that the internet at large likes. Anyway, laughed my ass off. The rest of the episode was solid and the references were clever.
Terriers: S1 x 08 – Agua Caliente ★★★★☆
If there’s one thing that Terriers has going for it, it’s the depth that’s been given to all of the characters. So, when a rather straight-forward and predictable episode like this one comes along, it’s nice that we ACTUALLY CARE about the characters. A worthy follow-up to last week’s heartfelt and heavy episode.
No Ordinary Family S1 x 05 – No Ordinary Quake ★★★★☆
No Ordinary Family gets a lot of flack for not being what the hardcore nerds want it to be. The problem is that everyone expects this to be THE NEXT HEROES or HEROES EQUIVALENT. It’s got super-powered individuals so NATURALLY the themes need to be complex and the situations harsh and gritty. Problem is that this is a family-oriented super hero series on ABC. As far as that genre is concerned, this show is television gold. The characters are decently written and played by charismatic and likable actors. No exception in this episode, which continues the Powell’s struggle to figure out their lives as a family with super powers. The message that Jim delivers to his son J.J. is thematic gold and makes up for the relatively little danger the family finds themselves in.
It makes a lot of sense that the Powell family hasn’t found themselves in considerable danger yet. They’ve been by and large under the radar, and the bad guys have been working behind the scenes. The Powells haven’t come across the decision to become the gung-ho good guys yet and I appreciate that they haven’t had to address that yet. They’re just a young family going through life.
All that aside, this beats the shit out of anything in Heroes past season 1.
Weeds: S6 x 10 – Dearborn-Again ★★★☆☆
There’s really nothing new in this episode and it’s frustrating. We’re almost done with the season and all the Newmans have done is flounder around on one giant road trip. The introduction of a potential parental unit was interesting, but it wasn’t enough to keep me from using this episode as white noise while I wrote. Also, what an utter waste of Richard Dreyfuss. Absolutely no chemistry between him and Mary Louise-Parker, which makes their backstory almost impossible to buy. As is custom for Weeds, the malevolent good guys are onto them and we get a glimpse as to what to expect in the next few episodes with the Feds and their search for the Botwins.
Not!Fringe: Episode Something-Or-Other ★☆☆☆☆
An improvement from last week, but still utterly terrible. It’s obvious that there was an attempt this time, as we were given a look into the Not!Other Dimension and how things worked on that side.
*sigh*
Next week can’t arrive fast enough.
