Week in TV: May 8-14

Game of Thrones

- This episode was particularly exposition-tastic. It wasn't really a great stand-alone episode of television, but it dispensed a lot of information vital to the series in as elegant a manner as possible, which is all that one can really ask of an adaptation dealing with as sprawling a world as this one.

- Sansa's discussion of mothering male heirs in this episode, and the show's ongoing descriptions of houses with interrupted lines of succession due to war made an interesting contrast with the recent royal wedding business. Obviously, the newly-minted Duchess of Cambridge doesn't have to worry about those same negative implications of producing female heirs, but the suggestions of a reproductive imperative in royal marriage were still swirling all around that event.

- There are many character introductions that fill me with delight (the third episode did a great job of bringing in a lot of the series' major supporting characters without making it feel like too many pieces were coming into play) but inception of Jon and Sam's wonderful bromance made me particularly happy.

- The Skins fan in me freaked out to see Joe Dempsie playing Gendry. It's always nice to see an actor you like in a role that starts out relatively small - it speaks to the potential for world-building in the show that they've already cast the role with someone who can handle it becoming more prominent. It's probably looking too far ahead to think about how awesome he might be working with Maisie Williams in the second season, but I'm excited anyway.

The Killing

I keep thinking back and comparing this show with the first season of Veronica Mars in reflecting on why I think it's not quite working. Veronica Mars did a great job of sustaining its overall arc, especially in pacing revelations regarding the conspiracy around imprisoning the wrong man for Lilly's murder and in maintaining a cloud of suspicion around several characters until the final reveal of the real murderer. It made Lilly Kane a vivid character in her own right, showing not just that the remaining characters missed her but illuminating her unique personality and presence. And it introduced Aaron Echolls with subtlety, showing that he could be a villain without making it immediately clear that he was the villain.

Conversely, I feel like I can't say much about Rosie Larsen, besides that she liked butterflies and had some shady friends. The show has drawn great performances from Brent Sexton and Michelle Forbes in showing the Larsens' grief, but still has this distinct void around who Rosie was and what specifically they miss about her. While I could see the Richmond campaign tying back in to the murder investigation later in the season, right now it's making for a dull B-story that highlights how little is being solved week-to-week in the A-plot. I'm trying to be optimistic, and could definitely see them pulling out a great couple of episodes once they let the audience in on who the killer was and how he or she has been covering their tracks. Right now, though, it's not quite all gelling.

Gossip Girl

I love the way the show uses Desmond Harrington. It's like Stephanie Savage keeps him locked up in a closet somewhere in Silvercup and once a year just sort of drags him out, dusts off the mothballs and sticks him in front of a camera to do the Jack Bass thing. He's turned into one of the show's few recurring characters who is used exactly the right amount.

Parks and Recreation

- So back in January, Amy Poehler did this interview with Alan Sepinwall where she mentioned the drunk talking heads from "The Fight" and how awesome they were, and I kept thinking back to that wondering when they would come up and whether I was over-hyping them in my mind. The reality, somehow, was so much better.

- There's something I really love about April's pretense that the Snakehole Lounge is actually named after someone whose last name is Snakehole.

Friday Night Lights

- I love how over the years my FNL viewing keeps coming around to some point or another where I end up shaking my head sadly at the TV, sighing, and saying, "Oh, Julie." I can't even quibble with what a terrible decision-maker she is, since the vast difference between her idea of her worldliness and her actual worldliness been such a consistent part of her character nearly since the pilot. (In fact, I'm pretty sure there's a fairly direct line between that charmingly pretentious analogy she makes between the Panthers and Moby Dick and her ultimately having an affair with a TA.) I just hope the rest of the season doesn't leave her too downtrodden.

- It is positively eerie how much the kid they have playing Buddy, Jr. looks like Brad Leland.

On pickups and cancellations:

We're heading into one of my favorite times of year, when the TV year ends. The next weeks will have upfronts with pilot pickups and show renewals, and then comes Dream Emmy ballot time. (Yay!) It's been interesting to watch the news of cancellations and renewals coming down this week - it seems like most of the networks are ready to clean their slates and work on reshaping their brands. If there's been another season since the writers' strike with so much turnover, I can't recall it. Most of the cancellations were unsurprising, though some were disappointing - I felt like Detroit 1-8-7 and Off the Map had great casts with material that could've made great shows with a little tweaking and refining. And I was happy to see that Happy Endings got a renewal - there's definitely the potential for a great second season there, a la How I Met Your Mother. More commentary yet to come as the weeks progress and I reflect on which shows I may stop watching looking ahead to next season...

Week in TV: February 20-26

Big Love

- Sometimes on Big Love, the plot machinations feel so improbable or indelicately deployed that they've kept me from enjoying the show (ahem, fourth season) but sometimes they represent such deliciously bad decision-making on the parts of the characters that it's my privilege as a viewer to sit back and gleefully yell "Bad idea!" at the television. I can't decide which Cara Lynn and her teacher or Ben and Rhonda is a worse couple. On the one hand, Cara Lynn's teacher is an adult who seems to recognize that he should know better, but also...can't stop himself from exploiting what Cara Lynn has pretty clearly explained as some epic Daddy issues? And in this corner, Rhonda Volmer, certifiable crazy person! Both seem like situations destined to deteriorate quickly and spectacularly and I can't wait.

- Speaking of certifiable crazy people, how much do I love Barb's sister Cindy and her particular brand of passive aggression? Sooo much. Obviously, I'm rooting for Barb in this situation, but over the course of the series Judith Hoag has made her own little art form out of Cindy's self-righteous condescension towards Barb, and I'm so glad that they found space for her in this last stretch of episodes.

Gossip Girl

- The pop culture references on Gossip Girl aren't always deployed with a whole lot of nuance, so it was nice to see that little snippet of Blair and Dan watching The Philadelphia Story without any extraneous commentary. It's not an obvious connection to make, but once the show gave that little nudge, it's practically impossible to not see Tracy and Mike as Blair and Dan's antecedents (and the great vibe between Meester and Badgely as an update of the repartee between Hepburn and Stewart).

- The actual specifics of the business dealings around Bass Industries are a little oblique to me, but I have to say that I'm digging Michael Boatman's work on the show. Something about the tone of his performance gives the whole storyline a very eighties-primetime-soap throwback feel. Very Dynasty. I hope someone ends up throwing a drink in his face.

- Digression! Why doesn't Gossip Girl have awesome old-school credits with a great theme? When you watch Dynasty or Dallas, they have such great theme songs and credits sequences that are, like, three minutes long and they create this great ambiance of fabulousness.

Okay, maybe it just seems like three minutes compared with those pathetic pale imitations of show themes they've got these days, but - Jewels! Brandy snifters! Joan Collins! (I love the Dynasty theme so much, you guys. I kind of want it to be the ringtone on my phone.) Doesn't it seem like there should be some sort of situation here that involves the various Gossip Girl actors swiveling dramatically towards the camera, or descending long staircases or gallivanting around in formalwear? Serious lost opportunity there.

Week(s) in TV: Catching Up

I'm supposed to be working on a paper, but I figured that this was not entirely useless as a stalling tactic as it gets me writing something, which is better than writing nothing even if it's not germane to the task at hand. I keep starting weekly posts and then having them sort of fade into the ether as I get farther and farther into each successive week without posting, so this is sort of a multi-week commentary compendium including the various cable shows that have concluded their seasons in the past few weeks.

Boardwalk Empire

- When I do the Dream Emmy Ballot in the summer, the supporting drama categories are always the ones where I end up with about twenty performances that I love, and BE added some great actors there. Michael Kenneth Williams never seemed to get enough to do, besides that unbelievably excellent scene with Chalky and the guy from the Klan, but still used every second he appeared on screen to radiate a kind of simmering menace that made Chalky seem like the greatest badass of all time. Similarly, Jack Huston made a lot out of relatively little screen time, particularly in selling Richard's war wounds as more than a gimmicky period flourish.

- Try as I might, I just cannot bring myself to care about Angela and her problems. The whole "drifting along ineffectually, letting oneself be swayed by whomever happens to be physically closest" thing is likely very true to the way a fair number of people go through life, but it's terribly boring to watch. And unlike, say, Mad Men, where I think the writers made a decent case for Betty's continued presence by emphasizing the degree to which Don places importance on his children, the same can't really be said here for Angela in relation to Jimmy. The writers made me care more about Pearl in two episodes than they did about Angela through the whole entire season.

- I honestly wasn't sure for much of this season whether I would be excited for the next when it wrapped, but the finale sold me - I'm genuinely interested to see where the alliance between Jimmy, Eli and the Commodore goes. It seems like BE has all the tools necessary to pull out a superlative second season, and I'm looking forward to seeing whether they stick the landing.

The Walking Dead

Conversely, I don't know if I'm just that into The Walking Dead. It wasn't bad, but the first six episodes didn't feature the kind of character development or plot advancement that makes a show feel like vital viewing. (This post from io9 delves really well into the differences between the show and the comic - which I started reading over the summer, then tapered off - and how those differences tended to make the show a bit shallower.) Depending on how many shows I'm watching next fall, I may pick it back up again when the second season starts, but at present I'm not burning to see more.

Gossip Girl

Last week's episode concluded what is easily the best-executed narrative arc the show's ever done. (Considering the entire Schwartz/Savage oeuvre, it may be the best-executed narrative arc on GG or The O.C.) Eleven episodes must be some kind of record for them as far as sustaining a storyline, and the writers managed to make Juliet's motivation logical (as logical as Gossip Girl ever gets, anyway) and to resolve the story with a decent payoff. The only disappointment is that Juliet and Serena ended on good terms - Katie Cassidy could've made a stellar recurring villain for the show.

Glee

While watching both "Special Education" and "A Very Glee Christmas," I was struck by how little I cared about the seeming dissolution of the relationships between Rachel and Finn and Will and Emma. For all of the show's emphasis on the pairings of characters, there isn't a huge degree of chemistry among any of them. Some work well plot-wise, but there's no real, say, Matt Saracen/Julie Taylor or Chuck Bass/Blair Waldorf in this group. That said, I will observe that Artie and Brittany seem to be shaping up to be a great example of the Dream Relationship - that being when one finds someone who takes in the various things about them that are maybe a little nutty, crazy, flaky, whatever, and finds those things charming.

Sons of Anarchy

- I'll be interested to see how this season plays back on DVD. I watched both prior seasons within the span of about two weeks, so this season was going to feel like slow going no matter what happened, and I suspect that the trip to Ireland will play better within a shorter span of time and that the way it eventually circled around to bring John Teller's history in will fit better with the show's mythology as it's been laid out so far. Regardless, it's difficult to quibble with the story's denouement in the finale. If you're going to dispatch with a pair of villains who've outlived their narrative usefulness, best to do so with extreme badassery as the culmination of an epic triple-cross. The potential for a degree of narrative resetting with Jax, Clay and company coming out of jail (presumably) at the beginning of next season seems really promising - why is next fall so far away?

- I so hope that this season's finale, like the prior two, appears on the DVDs with a cast commentary. Kurt Sutter gathers together a giant group of cast members, then they proceed to basically ignore whatever gravity the plot would seem to dictate and replace it with a lot of catcalling, insults of each other's stage fighting and motorcycle riding abilities and general raucousness. I really, really want to rewatch the moment when Chibs slices Jimmy up with a cast commentary soundtrack.

- I found him kind of one-note in his early appearances, but I have to say that Chucky is growing on me. Once they minimized the masturbation jokes and focused on his potential as an odd-but-game friend of the club he became a great figurehead for the community built around SAMCRO.

Terriers

Between the time when I initially planned to write about this and now, Terriers was officially cancelled by FX. As was frequently true throughout the season, I find myself at a loss for words to encapsulate what was so good about Terriers. There were the perfect marriages of character and actor with Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James. The ensemble of smart female characters like Katie, Maggie and Steph, truly unlike any other on TV. The marvelous frayed-edges and lived-in-ness of the universe of Ocean Beach. The push and pull between laid back amiability and tangible danger that somehow never seemed to tip the balance too far any one way. I wasn't surprised that the show got cancelled - all I could really do was shrug and sign up for an Amazon update when the DVDs are available - but man, will I miss it.

I suppose the other side of the coin as far as The Walking Dead is that in the past six months alone we've had both Rubicon and Terriers come and go, and while I feel like I'll miss the characters and their universes and chase down other work by the actors from the latter two, right now I feel like I could quite contentedly never watch TWD again.

Week in TV: September 12-18

True Blood

I watched this finale twice, and I still feel like I don't have anything coherent to say about it. I guess it's partly because the past two seasons have had arcs that went more or less from episodes 1 to 12, with one major cliffhanger at the end, while this one ended with multiple stories that all feel like they're only at the halfway point. Don't get me wrong, I'm intrigued to see what happens with Jason as the new...king? mayor?...of Hotshot and Hoyt and Jessica in their new house and Sookie in Fairyland, but it was kind of a manic sprint to the end right there. I hope the writers will use Sookie's time in Fairy Limbo to give the show a solid time jump - the pacing could use some shaking up.

Mad Men

- It's interesting to see various online takes on the Joan storyline, as far as determining whether Joan or Peggy was ultimately "right" in how they handled Joey's all-encompassing asshole behavior. Personally, I think that they're both right for themselves and wrong for each other. Joan's assertion that Peggy will now be seen as a humorless bitch is probably correct, but I'm not sure that Peggy cares about being seen as a humorless bitch. As much as she's listened to Joan's advice in the past, I think at this point, after 3.5 seasons in real time and 5 years in show time, she's accepted that she is not going to be the same kind of workplace woman as Joan. It's not exactly like the whole winning friends and influencing people thing has ever really been her bag. I also think that last week's episode demonstrated that she's only interested in dealing with one man's issues at a time, and for now she's picked Don.

- I don't know that I'd like to see the voiceover continue over into other episodes, but it worked as a dramatic structural shift at least as a one-time deal. I also liked the use of "Satisfaction"; it's probably the most popular period song that the show's used since "Let's Twist Again" in the second season premiere - they usually go more subtle - but it worked as a symbol of Don clearing his head a bit and cluing into what's going on around him. Other reviews I've read have touched on the placement of the lines regarding advertising; I was struck on second viewing how directly they evoked campaigns within and around the show - Lucky Strike ("cigarettes") and Clorox ("how white my shirts can be"), respectively.

- I'm continually fascinated by Betty's lies, omissions and general lack of perspective where Don and her past with Don are concerned. Given the amount of time over this season that we've watched Don be decidedly not okay post-divorce, her view of him living the high life in the city frequently comes off misguided and hyperbolic. I think, though, that it's important to the show and its construction of Don to understand that there's real emotional wreckage for Betty underneath all the childish, manic hostility. However, I'd be lying if I said that I didn't have a little hope that one day Betty will encounter Faye - the doctor would likely size her up in a minute, and have fun doing it, too.

Gossip Girl

- Nice to see Katie Cassidy getting more work, as she was easily the best thing about last year's Melrose Place update. I guess "Nate's New Girlfriend" is the CW's "Sorry Your Last Show Didn't Work Out, But We Still Love You" consolation prize. I'm intrigued to see where her seeming stalkerdom goes - she might turn out to be totally legit or the One True Gossip Girl or something, but the character who is straight-up crazy is a beloved soap staple.

- I probably would've been in a bit more suspense if my cable guide hadn't listed the episode blurb as "Chuck arrives in Paris," but whatever. The show's great at setting up good season-ending cliffhangers, but it usually takes them a few episodes to get the ball rolling plot-wise on the new season.

90210

I have to confess, when I originally heard that 90210's premiere was going to open with an earthquake, I was kind of hoping for something like the series-culminating earthquake in Sweet Valley High, where dozens of characters gathered together to celebrate the twins' birthday and then Olivia Davidson got crushed to death by the Wakefields' fridge and various other tertiary characters met their tragic untimely deaths. (As teen fiction goes, it was extremely dramatic.) And sure, some bad stuff happened, but if you're going to use an earthquake then I think you should really go all in. Otherwise, why are you on the CW?

Life Unexpected

- Probably not one I'll keep writing about, and it'll probably be early to move to the backburner if I get overwhelmed with work or bored (or even go unwatched altogether - of all the networks, the CW's online player is the one I've always had issues with). A lot of the CW shows seem to start their new seasons introducing new characters in a sort of "throw them all at the wall and see who sticks" way that is unfortunately reminiscent of the early second and third seasons of The O.C. and I think that last season showed that the core group of characters could reliably create drama amongst themselves without bringing in too many other people. This was just a very busy premiere.

- Also, I don't buy that an allegedly "best-selling" author would elect to take a job as a local radio personality in Portland, Oregon as opposed to, say, doing a syndicated or satellite show. This past weekend I saw Going the Distance, and one of the things I really liked about the movie was that it was relatively realistic about the characters' jobs, which is something Life Unexpected needs a bit more of regarding local radio.

Sons of Anarchy

- I love Paula Malcomson (SoA is getting Deadwood-tastic!) but I'm starting to need some more clarity on the whole Irish situation. Like, a glossary and a flow chart and maybe some closed captioning.

- I would almost definitely watch a show that was just Gemma and Tig running from the law and imposing themselves on people.

Parenthood

- I'm sure everyone has some Parenthood moment or another that evokes specific memories of growing up; Haddie's driving lessons with Kristina took me back. I learned with my dad, I think at least partly because I'm pretty sure that learning with my mother would have had the "imminent homicide" tone they captured so well here. As much critical acclaim as his shows get, Jason Katims still doesn't get nearly enough credit for his ability to realistically capture teenagers and all their emotions.

- Dirty Sexy Money reunion! Can we have Glenn Fitzgerald and Seth Gabel too?

New Shows:

Top Chef: Just Desserts

Mmmm...sugar. I'm going to use this show as a motivator towards finishing my masters thesis - I've been promised a KitchenAid mixer when I'm done, and watching chefs whip up pastries in this show made me want to throw my hand mixer out the window.

Outlaw

Adjectives fail me as far as this show is concerned. "Implausible" doesn't seem to quite cover it; there are so many factual omissions and implausible plot machinations that I kept wishing I could turn my brain off just so I wouldn't have so many questions. How long has it been since Garza was a trial lawyer? (Someone warns him at one point during this pilot that he'll be disbarred - by which bar?) Are we really supposed to believe that in this celebrity journalism/political blog culture that only Politico would be interested in a Supreme Court justice with a gambling problem? How did this guy get confirmed in the first place? I'm willing to give some leeway with a lot of shows as far as the way things are in "the real world," but the show stating that Garza was appointed by Bush suggests that they should be held to a standard that's not currently being met.

I guess I'm partly disappointed because the central premise, though unlikely, could be handled much better. I couldn't help but wonder what a writer like David E. Kelley or Aaron Sorkin would do with a concept like "Supreme Court justice retires on ideological grounds." At the very least, they'd likely engage - at length - the philosophical question of the efficacy of representing cases on the ground versus continuing to establish and affirm legal precedents by staying on the court. It was only within the past ten years that NBC was airing The West Wing - we can't have moved so far past having network shows that are both intellectually grounded and a reasonably accurate reflection of how the system functions, can we?

Also Watched: Rubicon, Hellcats, Top Chef, Terriers, Nikita

Best of the 00s: Best TV Music Moments

Television offers so many different examples of the rich potential in uniting images and music - both original to the show and previously recorded. This list seems a little intense, but here's my chronologically-ordered rundown of some of my favorite television music moments of the decade:

"Lady" - Styx and Nick Andopolis (Jason Segel), Freaks and Geeks - "Boyfriends and Girlfriends" (1/16/00)

It seems fitting that this particular moment came only a few weeks into the decade, because Freaks and Geeks still feels so formative to me as a television viewer. There isn't much to say about this that I haven't already, but I'll add that I love that nearly a decade later I can still see Jason Segel being goofy on television on a weekly basis.

"Heat Wave" - Martha and the Vandellas, American Dreams - "Pilot" (9/29/02)

A few weeks ago, I was reading a quote from Jon Hamm where he observed that Mad Men is not American Dreams, particularly referring to the latter's featuring black characters within its narrative. The musical moment here, which comes about four minutes into the clip below, highlights the fundamental difference in tone between the decade's two major depictions of 1960s life - while Dreams featured many of the conflicts that defined the 60s, it also placed some value on a sense of warmth and community. The explosive sense of joy that came when "Heat Wave" kicked in, emblematic of the show's use of popular music, made this a truly wonderful pilot.

"Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" - Clay Aiken, American Idol - "Season Two Wild Card Performance Show" (3/4/03)

True Confessions Alert: When the second season of Idol aired, I was sixteen years old and I loved Clay Aiken. I was never one of those fans that was deeply invested in his mythic heterosexuality - I just though he had a beautiful singing voice, and voted for him every single week. There are other performances I could have chosen (this past week's Community reminded me of how much I liked his "Somewhere Out There," and he had one of the few non-terrible finale songs in many seasons of the show) but I went with the wild card performance that got him into the top 12.

"Shakin'" - Rooney, The O.C. - "The Third Wheel" (1/7/04)

Before they added the Bait Shack in Season Two and built performances by popular musicians into the show, the first season episode featuring this performance by Rooney felt novel. (To me - I mean, I wasn't old enough to have seen the same kind of thing on previous teen shows.) It also remains a favorite for introducing me to a band I continue to love.

"If You Leave" - Nada Surf, The O.C. - "The Goodbye Girl" (3/3/04)

Music Supervisor Alexandra Patsavas has been behind several TV music moments that prompted me to then purchase said music - I believe this was the first. She chose several gorgeous covers for moments on The O.C. - Ryan Adams' take on "Wonderwall," Petra Haden's "Yellow" - but this may have been the best. It featured the departure of a great character before that kind of thing took the show downhill, and drew upon the John Hughes music legacy without feeling forced.

"It Ain't Easy Being White" - G.O.B. and Franklin Delano Bluth (Will Arnett), Arrested Development - "Righteous Brothers" (4/16/05)

Was there ever a more perfect representation of G.O.B.'s all-consuming self-absorption than Franklin? This song serves as just one example of what made Arrested Development totally unlike anything else on television.

"Muffin Top" - Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski), 30 Rock - "Jack-Tor" (11/16/06)

I think it says a lot about popular dance music of the decade that this is what a parody of it sounds like. Props to Jane Krakowski for her 100% commitment to Jenna's insanity and total lack of self-knowledge.

Muffin Top - Celebrity bloopers here

"Let's Go to the Mall" - Robin Sparkles (Cobie Smulders), How I Met Your Mother - "Slap Bet" (11/20/06)

I think with How I Met Your Mother, a lot of people can't get past their association of the multi-camera setup and the laugh track as relics of a bygone age of comedy. It's too bad for them, because then they miss awesome stuff like "Let's Go to the Mall," the denouement of perhaps the show's best episode. It is simultaneously hilariously goofy and insanely catchy, making it a winner in every way.

"Open Your Eyes" - Snow Patrol, The Black Donnellys - "Pilot" (2/26/07)

This comes from a time when Snow Patrol seemed to be everywhere, particularly "Chasing Cars." This is an example of a song that I heard previously on another show (Grey's Anatomy in this case) but in this specific circumstance, it made me sit up and pay attention. The cascading notes that close the song, paired with the pilot's framing of the violent origins of a destructive crime family, gave the scene a dire, apocalyptic air that I still remember even though the show was short-lived.

"Wild World" - Cast, Skins - "Everyone" (3/22/07)

To some extent, this moment is emblematic of how significant music can be to a show, and how much can get lost in translation. The music rights for Skins, a British show, don't apply to the U.S. releases of the show, which in most places just means that popular songs get switched out for genre-similar approximations. However, the DVD version of the first season finale cuts out this moment - where members of the cast sing the Cat Stevens classic - out completely, causing a scene jump that makes little narrative sense. On top of that, it's also a unique, beautiful moment that serves as an example of what makes Skins so excellent.

YouTube won't let me embed: Link

"All Along the Watchtower" - Bear McCreary, Battlestar Galactica - "Crossroads, Part Two" (3/25/07)

"Crossroads, Part Two" was the first BSG episode that I ever watched on a television (as opposed to my computer) and the closing moments featuring this song epitomized that increase in quality. The ties between the people BSG depicted and people today was always sketchy - references to "Earth" and Greek gods made it clear that we weren't totally distinct, but bringing in Bob Dylan to *spoiler alert!* introduce four of the final five Cylons was a gamechanger. BSG composer McCreary's take on "Watchtower" is hauntingly beautiful, and though the associated backstory introduced in the show's fourth season never completely worked for me, the closing shot of this episode zooming in on our Earth is one of the show's best.

Someone's super-litigious, as I can't even find the associated clip on YouTube. This is one of many coupling McCreary's take on the song with pictures from the show: Link

"Sweet Dreams" - Eurythmics, So You Think You Can Dance - "Season Three Top Six Performance Show" (8/8/07)

The third season of SYTYCD is still my favorite - I think it was the one group of dancers that had an ideal balance between technical ability, versatility and personality. This is my all-time favorite routine of the show - the moment where Neil does the "plange" (my phonetic spelling) propelling himself up and over Sabra on the table, it felt like time was standing still.

"Hopelessly Devoted to You" - Olive Snook (Kristin Chenoweth), Pushing Daisies - "Dummy" (10/10/07)

There's a moment at the end of the Pushing Daisies pilot where Ned and Chuck hold their hands behind their backs, pretending to be holding each other's hand, where when I originally watched it I thought to myself, "I think I love this show." This moment, from the second episode, is when I thought to myself, "I know I love this show."

"Stripper" - Sohodolls, Gossip Girl - "Victor Victrola" (11/7/07)

From yet another Patsavas-supervised show, this moment functioned as the genesis for a great TV couple in Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass, and also served notice that Gossip Girl was decidedly departing from its source material.

"Mr. Roboto" - Jeffster (Scott Krinsky and Vik Sahay), Chuck - "Chuck vs. The Ring" (4/27/09)

This moment, from Chuck's second-season finale, represents the kind of go-for-broke spirit that defines the show's tone and makes its fans love it so fervently. That this was written and made it to air well before the creative personnel knew that the show would be renewed for another season just makes it that much better.

"Don't Stop Believin'" - Cast, Glee - "Pilot" (5/19/09)

Just when it starts to feel like network television is stagnating, something like Glee comes along. The pilot builds all the way up to this joyous burst of song, which managed to make "Don't Stop Believin'" feel fresh even at the close of a decade where it appeared regularly across channels and shows.

08-09 TV Season: Looking Back and Ahead

Reflecting on this past season in television put me in the mood for a mondo-post. Clips abound! (Hulu ones are clips, not full episodes) First, ten awesome finale moments, in no particular order:

Chuck - "Guys? I know kung fu."

It's a ballsy move, sticking a game-changing cliffhanger with a "To Be Continued" at the end of a show with uncertain prospects for returning.  Chris Fedak and Josh Schwartz practically dared NBC to incur the wrath of fans by canceling the show, a gamble that thankfully paid off.  Now they've got at least 13 episodes to prove that this change was a good one - I can't wait to see what happens.

How I Met Your Mother - Barney and Robin work through their issues

The writers of HIMYM were armed and ready for the Moonlighting-invoking naysayers with this one, bringing their two commitment-phobes together in a way that satisfied the tension that's lingered between them all season without resorting to anything out of character.  It helps that Neil Patrick Harris and Cobie Smulders have a) excellent chemistry and b) deft comedic timing.  At this point, I could kind of care less about who Ted ends up with - I just want to see more of Barney and Robin trying to navigate their romantic minefield together.

Grey's Anatomy - 007

Every time I think I'm finally done with Grey's, Shonda Rhimes manages to pull me back in with a stroke of televisual genius.  The writers managed to build the rumored departures of T.R. Knight and Katherine Heigl into an emotionally tense hour of television with a doozy of an ambiguous ending.  One of my favorite feelings in television watching is when a moment causes my stomach to drop to my feet, the kind of moment that makes me say "Oh, shit" aloud, even if I'm watching alone in my living room.  The moment when Meredith realizes who the John Doe is (about 1:35 in the clip) was one of those.  I literally cannot stop myself from reading spoilers, so I knew something awful was going to happen to George, but I was still shocked, and that's good TV.  I'm excited to see what they do with this ending - any combination of George and Izzie living or dying has potential repercussions and hours of story. 

Lost - Juliet detonates the bomb

In many ways, this moment (at the very end of the clip, around 1:55) is about what's to come.  There are no clues as to whether the detonation will have the intended effect of hitting the reset button and preventing the plane crash and the wait until 2010 will be excruciating.  However, I had to give a spot to this moment because of the amazing job Elizabeth Mitchell does communicating Juliet's desperation.  Her determination not to die for nothing rendered the final moments of Lost Season 5 both heartbreaking and breathtaking.  I can't believe the crazy ride of this show is almost over, and I anxiously await the final chapter.

The Office - Jim & Pam's big news

Jim and Pam speak to the heart of the part of me that is totally a crazypants shipper about everything I watch.  I love them, I love them being happy, and this moment was beautifully done.  Unbelievable physical acting by John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer.

Gossip Girl - Chuck and Blair finally get their shit together

Alas, YouTube (or, rather, the CW's lawyers) won't let me embed this one.  Sometimes Gossip Girl can seem like a never-ending dance of "will they or won't they," which makes a denouement like this particularly satisfying.  Ed Westwick and Leighton Meester have some of the best chemistry on television, and they sell the sweet moments just as well as the combative ones.  Who knows what Stephanie Savage and co. will do with this relationship next season, but it's nice to have the two of them happy, even if it doesn't last.

Friday Night Lights - Tyra gets into UT

When I found out that I got into my first-choice school, over the phone from my mother while I was at school working on the newspaper, I sank to the ground and started crying.  In retrospect, it was probably pretty embarrassing, but nothing matches that specific feeling of elation, an emotion which shines through in this scene. All credit to Friday Night Lights, the writers and the actors for creating this wonderfully rendered world of authentically realized characters.  The journey of Tyra from the pilot until now (including the murder and drug-addled cowboy boyfriend) has been a joy to watch.  (Narrowly missing the slot, and deserving of an honorable mention: Matt taking his grandmother away from the nursing home.  Zach Gilford is regularly heartbreaking on this show, and that moment made me weep.)

Fringe - Leonard f-ing Nimoy!

I watched Fringe intermittently this season - when it went into its midseason hiatus, I felt like I wasn't really following the mythology, and when it came back I wasn't sure that I cared enough to pick it back up.  However, when I heard that J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman had capitalized on their Star Trek work and gotten Leonard Nimoy to play shadowy Big Bad William Bell, I knew I had to watch.  I don't have much more to say about that, beyond: Leonard f-ing Nimoy!  I extended the clip beyond his appearance to include the final shot of the alternate-universe Twin Towers, an indelible image that closed out the season with a bang.

ER - Life goes on

Ultimately, the ER finale spanned the entire season, bringing back old cast members in flashbacks and reunions to compose a body of work that honored the show's fifteen years and millions of fans.  At the beginning of the season, I thought that the ideal final scene would be a montage of daily life snapshots of the show's departed doctors.  This was just as good - an episode showing the ER continuing to work, right up until the end.  If you had told me when she was recurring on the show years ago that I would be glad to see Hallee Hirsch show up in the finale, I would have laughed right in your face, but her return as Rachel Greene managed to bring the show full circle without seeming too forced.  I love the final shot, when it pans out to show the exterior of County General in full for the first time, scored by the show's excellent theme song.

Battlestar Galactica - Roslin at rest

When we first meet Laura Roslin in the BSG miniseries, she is learning that she has cancer.  It remained as the specter haunting her through remission and recurrence, always threatening to keep her from shepherding the human race to a safe haven.  There was something undeniably peaceful about the "Dying Leader," having seen her seemingly impossible mission achieved, simply slipping away.  When I first watched this, I was crying so hard I was not breathing.  Even now, getting the clip, I still teared up.  There were some unsatisfactory things about the final season of BSG, but this was not one of them.

Honorable Mention:

30 Rock - Kenneth's cousin

Ultimately, the 30 Rock finale wasn't quite there for me - there was a lot about it that was funny (especially Liz's talk show romance advice - "Sir, have you ever kissed a gentleman?") but the season was just a bit less cohesive than its predecessors.  However, I must honor my 16-year-old self and acknowledge that I was kind of thrilled to see Clay Aiken in the finale, especially with the allusion to him being Kenneth's cousin.  I hope they do something more with this in the future - there's potential there.

Life on Mars - ...what?

I didn't really watch this show, but after I saw the finale of the UK version, with the classic tragic-time-traveler ending of the protagonist committing suicide, I was curious to see how the American version would end.  I was rewarded with one of the most batshit crazy things I've seen in quite some time.  I love insane things just about as much as I love really high-quality things, so this seemed like the place to shout out Life on Mars for some truly excellent crazy.

And looking ahead, five(-plus) fall returns to television about which I am psyched.

Michelle Forbes - True Blood

Technically, this is in two weeks, not the fall, and Forbes has been on TV recently on In Treatment.  However, I had to give this one a slot for returning her to what she did so awesomely as Admiral Cain on Battlestar Galactica - crazy bitch mode.  Even if True Blood and its literary source material hadn't become my new crazy-ass obsession (I'm sure I'll address this more fully in some other post, but apparently my childhood vampire phobia was keeping me from experiencing some seriously out-of-control, totally unhealthy pop-culture obsessions) I would still be psyched about getting to see her do what she does best yet again.

Thomas Calabro and Laura Leighton - Melrose Place

This is essentially what I wished for three years ago, but potentially more awesome because they're actually returning to play the same characters.  I love a good primetime soap opera - hopefully, this one will embrace the true Aaron Spelling spirit and really go for broke.

Kristin Chenoweth and Victor Garber - Glee

Both cast members on post-writers' strike second season casualties on ABC (Pushing Daisies and Eli Stone), I hope with all my heart that these Broadway vets will be utilized to the full extent of their abilities in guest spots on Glee. (The clip is my personal favorite part of the Glee pilot - the introduction of Rachel Berry.  Her Type-A persona seems like it could become grating, but Lea Michele absolutely sells the whole thing, from the way she smiles as she dabs at her tears, to the whole gay dads segment.  Also, I love "On My Own" - it's a gorgeous, heart-rending song, especially when it's performed well.)

Busy Phillips - Cougar Town

A post that keeps floating around in my mind but never quite making it to the blog is "Actresses from Past Judd Apatow Productions Who I Wish Were Getting the Same Boost in Fame as Their Male Counterparts," and I thought I'd mention that because Busy Phillips is at the top of that list.  Kim Kelly was a truly unique television character, and more than nearly any other character on Freaks and Geeks, I really wanted to know what would happen with her in the future.  As far as this fall is concerned, I really hope that Cougar Town will be better (specifically, less desperate for relevance) than it seems in this preview.

Tina Majorino - The Deep End

What I said about Percy Daggs goes for Tina Majorino, too.  Her work on Veronica Mars was stellar, and I'm glad to see her continuing to get work.  Former child stars who keep their shit together and prove to be good actors as adults don't get nearly enough credit, or at least they get overshadowed by the ones with drug problems.  Props to Tina for staying awesome.