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Tag Archives: Episode Reviews
“Bart the Mother” Bridges the Gap between Mother and Son at the End of The Simpsons’ Golden Era
It’s deceptively simple. At the end of “Bart the Mother”, Bart understands his mom a little better after being a surrogate caregiver to some “kids” of his own. And Marge has her belief in the essential goodness of her “special little guy” rekindled when she sees his efforts to protect them, the same way she tries to protect him. By the time the credits roll, a mother and her son have been broken apart and fused back together, stronger and closer than ever.
There’s something a little T.G.I.F. about that. But as I discussed on The Simpsons Show Podcast, what separates this episode from its Miller-Boyett counterparts are the three things that always elevated The Simpsons above its contemporaries: smart storytelling, a keen understanding of its characters, and even in shaky Season 10, superb comedy that could still bring the laughs.
Star Trek: Discovery’s First Season Finale Is a Mixed Bag that Still Honors the Spirit of the Franchise
There was no shortage of pearl-clutching and garment-rending over the tone and spirit of Star Trek Discovery through much of its first season (some of it from yours truly). The show embraced a moral ambiguity in Starfleet’s mission that every other series (outside of Deep Space 9) had only hinted at. Captain Lorca leaving Harry Mudd to rot in a Klingon prison cell was touted as a betrayal of Federation and franchise principles. And Heaven help any writer who’d dared to have a character suggest that some Star Trek ideals must be bent or broken in a time of war.
But as I discussed with Robbie Dorman on The Serial Fanaticist Podcast, for all that folderol (or perhaps because of it) Star Trek Discovery ends its first season with a firm embrace of the franchise’s hallowed ideals of optimism, mercy, and understanding; a firm rejection of those who would eschew or ignore those things when they’re inconvenient; and a firm vindication of a lead character who grows enough to discover that it’s worth a mutiny to stand by those principles, not to toss them aside.
Gilmore Girls: “A Vineyard Valentine” Presages Mad Men in One of Season 6’s Best Episodes
It’s rare that Gilmore Girls feels like Mad Men, no matter what the overlapping talents of Alexis Bledel, Danny Strong, and (very briefly) Jon Hamm on both shows might suggest. The former is more explicitly comedic and bright, while the latter is more capital-S Serious and apt to explore the dark corners.
Despite that, the two series have a surprising amount in common. While their tones differ, both shows are intimately concerned with their characters’ emotional states and how a mood or a feeling can carry or direct them through a given day. Both examine their protagonists’ sense of who they are, what place they occupy in the world, and how that translates to their treatment of those around them. And despite its heavier vibe, Mad Men could be hilarious, and despite its whimsical bent, Gilmore Girls was often incisive and heartbreaking.
The Good Place Season 2 Gave Us Beautiful Lessons on Morality by Smashing the Status Quo
The first season of The Good Place was full of twists, and yet, in a way, the show subtly stuck to its guns. While our understanding of Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, Jason, and Janet changed, their situation remained the same, even if they didn’t realize it. Every episode took place in The Good Place, and almost every episode featured the four mortal beings making their way through that particular setup, while flashing back to their past missteps to underscore the lessons they were learning in the afterlife. The contours changed, but the premise remained the same.
Then, in Season 2, The Good Place turned its premise on its ear time and time again.
Breaking Bad’s Pilot Has It All, And Yet Has Nothing
It’s all there. And none of it’s there.
As I talked about on the Pilot Study Podcast, the Breaking Bad pilot tells you everything you need to know to watch and understand the series. It gives you Walter White, the down-on-his-luck, spineless high school chemistry teacher who’s sleepwalking his way through life. It gives you the hint of an interest and a talent within him that goes unnoticed and unregarded by everyone around him. It gives you Skyler and Walt Jr., Hank and Marie, Jesse Pinkman and so many other figures who make up his world, with just enough color to get a sense for who they are. It gives you the cancer diagnosis that ignites something in Walt, that causes him to take control of his life. And it gives you the sense of the consequences of that change and that choice, the subtle transformation that sets him on a different trajectory.
But what isn’t present, what’s barely even hinted at in this first installment, is where that slow-burning transformation will take him. That’s the beauty of Breaking Bad, and its devotion to the idea of change embodied in Walt’s speech about chemistry. We see the first chemical reaction here, the catalyst that sends a lowly science teacher down a new path. We see brief sketches of his wife, his brother-in-law, and his new, less-than-reputable business partner. But we can’t see how much these individuals, and our view of them, will shift and flip over the ensuing five seasons of one of television’s all-time great dramas.
This pilot gives you everything you need to dip your toe into the world of Breaking Bad, but only gives the slightest hints as to how deep and how dark the water goes.
Posted in Other Prestige Dramas, Television
Tagged Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston, Episode Reviews, Vince Gilligan, Walter White
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Bob’s Burgers: Tina Belcher Chooses Girl Power over Stink Bombs in “V for Valentine-detta”
You could be forgiven for getting whiplash from the on-again, off-again romance between Tina Belcher (Dan Mintz), Bob’s Burgers’ resident love-struck tween, and Jimmy Jr. (H. Jon Benjamin), her longstanding crush. The show’s featured each one pursuing the other; it’s had them alternatively dating and feuding, and it’s even shown them pulling off wild stunts to impress the other, without ever really settling on a consistent level of interest, as befits the messy world of middle-school romance.
Posted in Other Animated Shows, Television
Tagged Bob's Burgers, Episode Reviews, Jimmy Pesto Jr., Tina Belcher, Valentine's Day
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Relief Can Only Be Temporary when The Good Place Takes the “Leap Into Faith”
The Good Place likes pulling the rug out from under its audience. Even before the big reveal in last season’s finale, the show was constantly offering twists. And it’s only gotten wilder from there.
The Walking Dead Warns This Is “How It’s Gotta Be” in a Trying Mid-Season Finale
If you’re a Walking Dead fan who’s made it this far, you’ve gone through a lot. As someone who watched that first fateful episode on Halloween nearly eight years ago, it’s easy to feel, in a weird way, like you’re one of the survivors from the show. After all, you’ve stuck this thing out, experienced good stretches and bad stretches, while more and more of your friends and acquaintances drop out, many of them resigned to the fact that things can never go back to how they used to be.
Hope in the Shadow of the Empire: Star Wars and the Jewish Identity
Star Wars has always drawn a connection between the Empire and the Nazis. From the very beginning, the franchise presented images of Grand Moff Tarkin and his officers, replete with enforcers dubbed “stormtroopers,” wearing uniforms that likened them to the men who served Hitler. It’s a visual choice that’s meant to tell the audience who the Empire is at a single glance, without needing to unpack the details that the franchise would explore in the ensuing decades.
Posted in Other Animated Shows, Television
Tagged Episode Reviews, Judaism, Star Wars, Star Wars Rebels
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The Walking Dead Has Good Ideas and Bad Dialogue in “Time for After”
The continued struggle of The Walking Dead is remarkably consistent. The show’s unhurried pace often gives it time to delve deeply into the theme of the week and really chew on it rather than just gulping it down and moving on like the eponymous, ravenous zombies who populate the series. Sure, some episodes are little more than epic climaxes or piece-moving adventures, but for the most part, even the worst episodes of the show have something they’re trying to say and some idea they’re trying to dig into.
But the show is almost impressively bad at crafting the sort of dialogue for its characters that can ground those examinations in something that feels like real human experience and interactions.
