Week in TV: October 30-November 5

Boardwalk Empire, 2.6: "The Age of Reason"

- There have been a lot of quiet scenes of serious, bone-deep loneliness this season - Richard's scrapbook, the stilted conversations of the Van Aldens - but nothing compares to the heartbreaking sequence of Lucy realizing what was happening and then gathering herself together to give birth alone. It seemed like the show relied a lot on Paz de la Huerta's established persona to build Lucy's character in the first season, but I think she's really done a great job with the more subdued material of this storyline.

- It's a small role, but I really like the performance Anatol Yusef is giving as Meyer Lansky. To the extent that BE ever functions as a sort of a biopic, it's what I think of as the ideal biopic performance - aware of the mythos without being overly reliant on it. There are just brief flashes here and there where you can say, "Oh, yeah, I can totally see this guy being a major player in revolutionizing American organized crime," but I never feel beaten over the head with it.

Sons of Anarchy, 4.9: "Kiss"

I know it's not really a flashback kind of a show, but I'd really love to see SOA take a look back at the early years of the Gemma-Unser relationship. (I'm sort of envisioning a West Wing "Two Cathedrals"-style setup.) What kinds of interactions did the cop and the wild daughter of Charming have back in the day that earned her such enduring devotion from him?

Revenge, 1.7: "Charade"

- I don't envy the people working on the upcoming Dallas reboot for TNT - Revenge has been bringing the primetime soap back with a vengeance (heh, no wordplay intended) and even if New Dallas is amazing, it seems likely that Revenge will totally steal their thunder. The introduction of Stripper Emily and the Nolan-Tyler blackmail hookup collectively showed that the show has transcended the pseudo-procedural revenge-of-the-week setup in only a few episodes.

- I know it's still a bit of a ways off, but what happens when the summer is over? The Graysons aren't year-round Hamptons residents, right? I'd like to think that the show will just continue on to other locales where the wealthy vacation - a season in Aspen or Palm Springs or wherever - but who knows?

American Horror Story, 1.5: "Halloween, Part 2"

- Finally, finally, a ghost tells one of the Harmons directly that they need to do some research. (In this case, one of Tate's apparent victims incredulous at Violet's ignorance of the situation.) The most frustrating thing about this show to me so far has been the Harmons' bizarre lack of curiosity regarding the house and its sordid history. If I was considering moving into a house and the realtor told me the previous tenants had died in a murder-suicide, I would Google That Business. Immediately. The further incidents of a) a stranger claiming to have burned his family to death in said house, b) a home invasion based around recreating events of a famous dual murder in said house and c) the Murder Tour of Los Angeles bus pointedly making a stop IN FRONT OF SAID HOUSE would prompt me to, again, Google That Business. Maybe take a trip to the library and spend some quality time with the Los Angeles Times on microfiche. It's difficult to feel bad about any of the terrible things happening to the protagonists when they seem so determined to face it all with as little helpful information as possible.

- Okay, so it's a major part of the story that the family doesn't have enough money to move, right? Then how do they have enough to afford that tricked-out security system with the prompt, personalized service?

- Interesting to see that Tim Minear wrote this episode - something about the tone reminded me a bit of his Angel episode "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been." Indeed, he wrote some of the most interesting flashback-based episodes under the Mutant Enemy banner - "Darla" for Angel, "Out of Gas" for Firefly and "Omega" for Dollhouse - which suggest that he's got a skill set well-suited to this show's particular universe and mode of storytelling. It wasn't the most suspenseful of the episodes that have aired thus far, but it was the first that made me curious to learn more about any of the characters (as opposed to previous episodes, which made me curious to see what sort of random insanity would get thrown up on screen the following week).

Miscellaneous Links:

- Shout-out to this week's A.V. Club Inventory on unexpectedly scary episodes of generally non-scary shows for including the episode that most readily came to mind for me: the Scream-based episode of Boy Meets World. (#10 on the list) "And Then There Was Shawn" is one of my all-time most memorable television-watching experiences, because it scared the ever-loving crap out of me. I was over at a friend's house when I saw it, and it marks the only time I can remember having to call home to be brought back from a sleepover during the night. I was wracked with paranoia for months afterward - I constantly checked behind doors to make sure no slashers were lurking and every time I got left alone at home I would just sit tensely in my room, jumping at every little creak, convinced that I was mere moments away from being murdered. Honestly, even though I've gotten older (and at this point, actually watched the real Scream without incident) and accumulated more experience with genre fiction, I'm still wigging a little bit just thinking about it.

Week in TV: October 23-29

Boardwalk Empire, 2.5: "Gimcrack and Bunkum"

- In a media landscape that's often lacking in diversity, I feel like BE deserves props for making the cabal of Atlantic City elders backing the Commodore feel like the oldest, whitest group of old white men anywhere on television. Truly an accomplishment among stiff competition.

- Great interview with Jack Huston from The Daily Beast; the work he's been doing this season is mesmerizing, and really showcases BE at its best.

Revenge, 1.6: "Intrigue"

There are many things to enjoy about this show, but I'm currently really digging Ashton Holmes, Tyler's weird creepiness, and the fact that they've kept his motives fairly oblique; does he want to bang Daniel, replace him in the Grayson family, or murder him and wear his skin? (Maybe all three, not necessarily in that order?) Love it. I was kind of convinced that the shooting that opened the pilot is actually connected to the mentioned-infrequently-but-just-frequently-enough-to-clearly-be-relevant waitress relationship gone bad rather than Emily's revenge plot, but I'm willing to give a percentage of that theorizing over to "Tyler finally snaps." Good stuff.

American Horror Story, 1.4: "Halloween, Part 1"

I think this week really highlighted a central flaw in the show, particularly if the plot heads where it appears to be heading: the most interesting people in any given episode tend to be the former residents/current ghosts. If the seemingly inevitable horrific murder (murder-suicide?) of the Harmons comes to pass, they aren't currently compelling enough for their potential future haunting to seem like an interesting prospect. At the end of the episode, I wasn't concerned about the ostensible protagonists. I was thinking, "Damn, I hope we get some sort of cross-era ghost interaction so there are at least a few scenes of Zachary Quinto and Lily Rabe going crazy on each other, over-the-top Tennessee Williams-style."

Once Upon a Time, "Pilot"

Grimm, "Pilot"

Two takes on fairy tales, neither of which grabbed me right out of the gate. I preferred Grimm's darker take on the material, just because it seemed to owe more to the gorier original stories as opposed to the more clearly Disney-influenced versions in Once Upon a Time (and, honestly, when you're introducing a show like this in 2011, I think you need at least a dash of that kind of self-awareness and to contend with your source material in as nuanced a manner as possible), but I don't think I'm up for what looks to be a more procedural structure in the less whimsical show. I'm more curious to see where Once Upon a Time goes for a while, particularly whether the flashback structure holds up, and whether a long-term strategy for sustaining compelling storytelling emerges. The stated goal of Emma ultimately defeating the Queen and breaking the curse seems like a decent endpoint, but only if there's as little wheel-spinning as possible in the journey to get there.

Week in TV: September 18-24

Good lord, TV. I am only one person!

How I Met Your Mother, 7.1: "The Best Man" and 7.2: "The Naked Truth"

My patience for this show's mythology shenanigans has grown so thin, but something in me just can't give up on it. The plan going in was to mostly let episodes just sort of accumulate on the DVR and watch them in blocks, and nothing I saw in this hour really dissuaded me from that position. (I'm going to be time-shifting like a fiend this year. Lots of moves to Friday and Saturday afternoon and evening.)

Sons of Anarchy, 4.3: "Dorylus"

I'm so curious to see where they go with the plot point of Juice's secret background. SOA does Imitation of Life!?! (It's brief, but Sutter wrote an interesting blog post about the upcoming storyline.)

Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, 13.1: "Scorched Earth"

It's interesting - they seem to have done so much to try to shore up the show to compensate for Christopher Meloni leaving that this episode felt much more focused than others I've seen from the past few years. Ultimately, I wonder if the show didn't wait too long to start introducing new detectives into the mix (as opposed to when Criminal Intent started rotating D'Onofrio with Noth), but Kelli Giddish fit in well in this episode. And while it feels a bit manipulative, I was a big fan of the last detective/ADA quartet of OG Law and Order, so I'm glad to see Linus Roache back as Michael Cutter. As premieres go, they put together a fairly solid argument for Meloni's departure not being the incentive to abandon viewership that it originally seemed.

The Playboy Club, "Pilot"

- This show was both not as bad as I thought it would be and not as good as it could be. And while the potential for a better show lies somewhere among its multiple storylines, I fear its association with a still-existing corporate entity means that there won't be an incentive to find and cultivate that better show. It could find depth in deconstructing the tightly corseted facade of the Bunny. Instead it persists in glorifying an imprecisely-defined concept of empowerment, introduced not by one of said empowered women, but in the voice of "Hef" as a shadowy Big Brother figure. It's like someone read Enlightened Sexism and took it as an instruction manual instead of a criticism.

- Reviewers keep bringing up Mad Men in comparison with this show, and certainly that show's current place in the zeitgeist undoubtedly had an impact on getting this show greenlit. But the show that came more immediately to mind watching this was American Dreams - not only because of the performance from "Ike and Tina Turner" (another missed opportunity in contrasting image and experience?) but also due to the similarities between Hefner and Dick Clark, their presence as shadowy background figures on the show and their presumed behind-the-scenes ability to influence how they're depicted. I only hope Playboy Club grows to encompass the kind of scope that American Dreams did.

- Fall TV Footnote! Gloria Steinem's website put up a PDF of her famous undercover piece about working at New York's Playboy Club. (The points made in the show's voiceover sound suspiciously similar to the P.R. she cites and ultimately rejects as presenting a false picture of how Bunny life really is.)

Unforgettable, "Pilot"; Person of Interest, "Pilot"; Prime Suspect, "Pilot"; A Gifted Man, "Pilot"

Ah, network dramas. None of these was bad or offensive, and each one has at least one actor who I like, but life's too short to accumulate crime procedurals. I'll definitely give Prime Suspect another episode or two, and I'm so wiped out on Friday nights this semester that I may keep up with A Gifted Man (or, as I started calling it in my head midway through the pilot, Dude Providence) at least until Chuck starts.

Charlie's Angels, "Pilot"

I think a go-for-broke, full-tilt camp remake of Charlie's Angels could be sort of fun, but, unfortunately, this is not that show. The tone was way too serious for the core premise, and it made the whole show feel like it was aiming for a portentousness that was never quite there. And as much as I love Victor Garber, I think he was missing a bit of the warmth that John Forsythe had in his voice work as Charlie.

2 Broke Girls, "Pilot"; Whitney, "Pilot"

Watched them, can't even really think of anything germane to say about them, not getting added to the schedule.

Miscellaneous Links

- Interesting piece from Wired on Dan Harmon - I feel like every interview I read with him makes me worry about his health.

- The A.V. Club has really been stepping it up a notch with their series of showrunner interviews. This week's set with Louis C.K. really showcased how much he thinks about every aspect of Louie from script to screen, and how much cachet he's built up among comedians and other artists.

Week in TV: September 11-17

True Blood, 4.12: "And When I Die"

Maybe I'll come back to this one? Like much of the season, this episode was mostly kind of dull. And what was exciting about it (in the last ten minutes) seemed to pretty blatantly be setting up plot points for Season Five. Which is all well and good, but that's nine months from now. Mostly, what I'm left with is: OMG REVEREND STEVE!!!!!

Sons of Anarchy, 4.2: "Booster"

- I really dig the mutual disdain Potter and Roosevelt have for Jacob Hale. Just another quality that adds to the general vibe of "The time of nutbag ATF agents is over".

- I love Rockmond Dunbar anyway, but that Do The Right Thing reference put it over the top for me. (If I let my TV geekery wander a bit, it's an interesting line to borrow - originally spoken by Giancarlo Esposito who, of course, is now appearing on Breaking Bad as Gus. Who, like SAMCRO, is having his own issues with a Mexican cartel (not that the SOA writers would've known that when they put this together)).

Ringer, "Pilot"

- I wanted to like this episode much more than I did. They loaded both characters with a host of problems, which are not the same thing as personalities, and declined to capitalize on Sarah Michelle Gellar's best trait as an actress in keeping the dialogue so low-energy. It could be a good guilty-pleasure show if they double down (no pun intended) on the campy possibilities of the story. Something about it makes me hope for that trajectory, even if it seems against the odds.

- The one aspect of this episode that I found really interesting was the subplot of Bridget attempting to maintain her sobriety while masquerading as her sister.

- So what's the over-under on how long it'll take for them to bring in someone else from Buffy? I'm thinking November sweeps, by which time it will likely be clear whether the show will make it past the original thirteen-episode order. I vote for Emma Caulfield - I think she could make a quality snooty rich lady.

Up All Night, "Pilot" and Free Agents, "Pilot"

A pair of shows that need time for their ensembles to gel. Up All Night has a great central cast, and I think the pilot showed that there's a clear sense of what the show is and what differentiates it from shows like Modern Family and Raising Hope. Free Agents wasn't terrible, but there was a definite air of humor lost in translation - watching it, I kept thinking, "Oh yeah, I can see how this probably worked better in Britain." I'm interested to see where the former show goes, but the latter never grabbed my attention the way I wanted it to.

The Secret Circle, "Pilot"

I don't know whether I'll ultimately stick with this show - CW programs always end up creating DVR issues for me - but not because this episode didn't pique my interest. They established a decent number of characters in the hour, and hinted at the potential for deep mythology and background, so I'm not averse to watching further weeks. At the very least, light shows (especially teen soaps) are a good accompaniment for morning coffee.

Miscellaneous Links

- Besides the football thing, this is pretty much how I feel this time of year. (from Hanna)

- I didn't watch H8R (even I have limits), but the reviews by Dan Fienberg and Todd VanDerWerff were a couple of the best things I read this week. Good TV-critic rants are truly priceless.

Week in TV: September 4-10

Sons of Anarchy, 4.1: "Out"

- The few reviews I've read of this premiere emphasize this season returning the focus to the club as it functions in Charming as opposed to the more wide-ranging search for Abel last year. While I'm looking forward to the return to that scope of storytelling, in this episode I was most excited to see the show introduce new antagonists (and, at least based on their first appearances here, specifically non-crazy antagonists) for SAMCRO. By the end of last season, Stahl became too manic and desperate, to the point that, while it didn't rob the triple-cross in "NS" of its dramatic weight, it felt inevitable that her all-consuming desire to entrap the club would come back to bite her in the ass. And Hale's death left the show with a void regarding a practical, reasoned perspective on the club and their role in Charming. I also come in already liking Rockmond Dunbar and Ray McKinnon, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how the show uses them across the season's arc.

- Not only was Ryan Hurst great in infusing the wedding scene with just a hint of sadness, but the show demonstrated a lot of respect for the audience's ability to retain information in letting that subtle undercurrent of grief be the episode's most direct reference to Donna. Semi-Related: I also love Lyla's tacky wedding platforms.

- They're awfully fond of musical montages on this show, with this episode bookended by them, so this EW gallery with Kurt Sutter and Paris Barclay breaking down the one that closed out "Out" was an interesting glimpse into that particular creative process.

The Hour, "Episode Four"

- I've enjoyed this show from the beginning, but I think this was the episode where the tone really clicked and the disparate storylines felt like they were all of a piece, joining comments on suppression and repression to construct a portrait of people striving together to challenge a status quo that leaves too many things unquestioned and unsaid.

- How great is Jessica Hynes? Her terse, matter-of-fact tone in her scene at the beginning of the episode beautifully established the tension that drove the remainder of the hour. In recent weeks, I've also seen her appear as an oversharing hippie on Skins and as an Edwardian-era boys' school matron on Doctor Who, so I'm sort of in awe of her range. (I also watched Paul over the weekend, and it's really interesting to see the more drama-focused track she seems to have taken post-Spaced as opposed to the genre work for which Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have gained international attention.)

- I've gone down a slight rabbit hole of British television recently, and it's really highlighted why comparisons between this show and Mad Men are simplistic and unfair. It's not just that the only thing they really have in common is the era, and even then not really. There's the difference in years, but more importantly, there's the different trajectories in global identity that the United Kingdom and the United States take during those years, which necessarily and dramatically inform the goings-on on both shows. But the striking thing you notice after watching more than a few British productions? Quite simply, they've been owning us at period pieces for decades, and have a deep pool of acting talent to back up that continuing engagement with the past.

- Just because it's not really like Mad Men in any way doesn't mean I can't still obsess over the fashion. I love everything about Bel's wardrobe, especially the scarves-as-headbands. And this show really makes me want to try to work some red lipstick into my repertoire.

Doctor Who, 6.10: "The Girl Who Waited"

- A great episode, with one of Karen Gillan's best performances in the series - I was particularly, and somewhat unexpectedly, pleased to see the return of Amy's bitterness towards the Doctor, which has largely dissipated in the episodes since "The Eleventh Hour."

- I again felt like I was waiting for a direct reference to what happened with Melody - you'd think that that's a thought that would come up in thirty-six years of stewing. In interviews I've read with Steven Moffat, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, it seems like they've got a handle on what keeps Amy and Rory traveling with the Doctor after that kind of traumatic experience, but I'm not sure that that's coming through on screen. There's an argument to be made that it would make sense for them to decide that being on the TARDIS is better than staying in Leadworth alone with their thoughts, but I think they need to specifically say so out loud, instead of leaving it to conjecture. I'm not sure how long the issue can go under-addressed without the arc (or lack thereof) starts undermining the quality of individual episodes.

Revenge, "Pilot"

I was really intrigued by the specific promotion offered for an early viewing of this pilot - ABC offered the pilot script as a free Kindle download on Amazon, which concluded with a link to watch the episode online. The changes from the script to the screen made for an unexpectedly interesting glimpse into the creative process of setting up a show's world to start off a drama series, particularly one like this where a good chunk of the story is dependent on past events. I love a good primetime soap, so I hope this one sticks around long enough to dig into its central mysteries. The pilot shows a lot of potential without seeming too high-concept to be sustainable past thirteen episodes.

The New Girl, "Pilot"

- Took advantage of this one showing up free on iTunes. I liked it, though I felt like I'd already seen about 90% of the pilot in the ads that have been running all summer for the show. I also feel like this pilot is difficult to use as an indicator of how the show will be going forward, since they had to replace Damon Wayans, Jr. and the pilot is so focused on the four roommates. Still, I like Zooey Deschanel (and Max Greenfield - Deputy Leo!), and as a nerdy, crafty twenty-something, I'm excited to see how they develop her character in further episodes.

- I found this profile of Zooey Deschanel from New York Magazine really interesting, especially in its take on both positive and negative reception of her star persona.

Miscellaneous Links:

- I love a good Mad Men dissection, so this Daily Beast post with Matthew Weiner and Jon Hamm breaking down "The Suitcase" was right up my alley.

- An interesting AOLTV piece (shared by Katie) by Mo Ryan about declining numbers of women writers on television staffs.

- More Downton Abbey! (The pieces coming out about the show right now must drive PBS's marketing people crazy.) This time, a New York Times article profiling Julian Fellowes. I love that he defends Thomas to the interviewer.

Weeks in TV: August 21-September 3

True Blood, 4.9: "Let's Get Out of Here" and 4.10: "Burning Down the House"

- It's made for kind of a whackadoo mix of storylines, but I love how the various spiritual possessions, skinwalking ventures and V-induced dreams have broadened the range of material that TB's ensemble has to play with.

- I'm sort of of two minds about this season. On the one hand, I think this season has done the best job of any so far of drawing upon the books; the books take place from Sookie's point of view, so she sort of darts in and out of the situations concerning different characters, and the show has established a broad enough cast of regulars that each of those stories has someone we know in it, which I think makes the audience more invested in everything that's going on than we've been in past seasons. On the other hand - like I said above, the mix has tended to be more crazy than cohesive.

Pretty Little Liars, 2.11: "I Must Confess"

- Oh, Dr. Sullivan. As soon as she told Emily that she knew, I was all, "Tell her over the phone, you're obviously going to get murdered!" Between the therapist's disappearance and Emily's Tragic Massage of Epic Creepiness, A's really starting to transgress some serious boundaries.

- Speaking of A, I loved the little "Update on Major Suspects" sweep through the audience for the doctor's hilariously unsubtle speech on text bullying, especially since Noel, Lucas and Mona had no lines or other scenes in the episode. I love when a show grinds the gears into place for a finale.

- Mr. Hastings, making a late-in-the-game play for Creepiest Weirdo in Rosewood! (Amid stiff competition!)

Pretty Little Liars, 2.12: "Over My Dead Body"

- PLL is approaching Lost-esque levels of obliqueness with their persistent refusal to offer concrete answers to their ongoing mysteries (I believe Garrett and Jenna were behind most, if not all, of the machinations of this episode, but enough of the notes related to that business were unsigned that I don't think they're necessarily A), but they do totally out-there creepiness better than just about any other show on television. Those dolls were truly something else.

- The idea of doing a one-off flashback Halloween episode is genius. More cable shows should have holiday episodes independent of their seasonal arcs. A Sons of Anarchy Christmas! Valentine's Day at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce!

Doctor Who, 6.8: "Let's Kill Hitler" and 6.9: "Night Terrors"

- I've tended to like the episodes focused on the quartet of the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River, but more and more it seems like the actors are landing the big emotional moments while having to spackle over some increasingly gaping plot holes. Like, as an immediate reaction, I would say that I liked this episode a lot, but if I think about it for more than about five minutes, my head swarms with unanswered questions and a creeping desire to try to pick apart the timeline. (see also: Point #5 in the io9 article linked below) Still, a delightfully energetic performance from Alex Kingston and great banter from Steven Moffat. Obviously, I'm torn. Strike this one down to revisit when the arc picks up again.

- "Night Terrors" is a solid episode, with a legitimately scary conceit in the dollhouse of horrors, done a serious disservice by airing out of production order. Declining to tie the episode's themes of the importance of family love and embracing an unconventional child to the broader arc of the story of the Williams-Ponds makes the characters seem flaky at best (and callous at worst: Rory's joke about letting the monsters get the boy feels...inappropriate given that, you know, his baby got kidnapped by nefarious aliens) and makes the writers seem like they're not paying attention to what's going on. If they absolutely had to move things around, it might've been better to switch this one with, say, "Curse of the Black Spot."

- This post is about to get totally linktastic. First! An interesting piece from io9 about things Doctor Who could do differently.

- AND: Steven Moffat is seemingly everywhere giving interviews about the second half of this series

- Daily Beast Interview

- Alan Sepinwall at HitFix Interview

- Mo Ryan at AOLTV Interview

Miscellaneous Other Links:

- Not terribly detailed, but with awesome, military-uniform-including cast photo: On the second series of Downton Abbey (Aside: Dear PBS, If the BBC can work it out so Brits and Americans can all watch the same new episode of Doctor Who on the same calendar date, can we please work on the timing of the Masterpiece selections' trip across the pond? I feel antsy just thinking about having to wait extra months for DA and Sherlock. Affectionately, Liz)

- Between Comic-Con, the TCA and the upcoming Emmys and start to the fall season, there's a veritable smorgasbord of showrunner interviews popping up all over the place online. The Daily Beast interview with David Benioff and D.B. Weiss is kind of delightful; they're clearly really jazzed to have the opportunity to dive further into George R.R. Martin's sprawling cast of characters.

- A.V. Club interviews with two of my very favorite TV people: Victor Garber and Martin Starr

- I'm fascinated by the ongoing discussions around AMC, their evolving brand identity, and what seems to be a growing suspicion among commentators that within the next few years their whole original programming enterprise could collapse like a house of cards. I started in on a post a few weeks ago, following the whole rigamarole around Kurt Sutter leaving Twitter - various outlets tried to frame it as some sort of showrunner smacktalk showdown, but I think that at the heart of what Sutter was saying about AMC, Mad Men and The Walking Dead was a criticism of the network for not managing its properties in a balanced way - but it sort of got lost in the shuffle (as too many posts do.)

Anyway: a fairly comprehensive timeline of this year's developments for the network from the New York Times and an excellent Vulture piece from this week. Potentially more thoughts on this in the future, maybe with the end of this season of Breaking Bad (a show I like, and certainly I can recognize why people love it, but I've had a few Sundays this summer where I've missed watching programs that night, and Breaking Bad is never the show I'm really burning to catch up on, you know?), especially if there are any more announcements that give off that "throwing things at the wall to see what sticks" vibe.

Week in TV: June 19-25

Game of Thrones, 1.10: "Fire and Blood"

- Baby dragons!

- This episode had some great scenes from the book that really translated well - the declaration of King in the North, the shot of the Night's Watch rangers heading north of the wall, Arya meeting Gendry, the confrontation with Catelyn and Jaime. They really seem ready to attack A Clash of Kings with all the energy it will require. I'm excited for next spring already.

- Sophie Turner really seems to be digging in as Sansa's story gets progressively grimmer and grimmer. At this rate, assuming they get to a third season, eventually we'll apparently be seeing some sort of masterpiece of pathos with her and Peter Dinklage.

- I wish they would've swept further across Westeros and checked in with at least Renly before the end of the season. I understand that there were necessary limitations based around the simple fact that they filmed without knowing whether or not they'd have a second season, which means no Stannis, no Greyjoys, no Tullys, no new sets for Riverrun or Highgarden, etc. It just made the sense of the developing war seem a bit lopsided in predominantly focusing on the Northern army and the Lannisters.

- The past few weeks sort of got away from me - partly because this was the only show I was interested in writing about, and it thus got lost in the Sunday-to-Sunday schedule, and partly because the really big events weren't surprises to me after reading the book. "The Pointy End" was well-written by George R.R. Martin; he seemed to add a shade of his own understanding of the various Starks that really shaped the episode well (Rickon speaks!), and the scene with Cersei dismissing Ser Barristan from the Kingsguard. (Of all the characters I'd like to hear more from in A Dance with Dragons, Ser Barristan's at the top of the list. I've got my fingers crossed for some chapters where he's just regaling Dany with stories of the Targaryens and Westerosi history.) "Baelor" did an unbelievable job with the final scene - I really liked the way they depicted Yoren finding Arya in the crowd as a sort of last mercy on Ned's part. And both the conversation between Maester Aemon and Jon about being a king's brother and the introduction of Walder Frey were all I'd hoped they'd be.

Law and Order: Criminal Intent, 10.7: "Icarus"

One of the major bummers about the Internet uproar over the finale of The Killing is that it overshadowed what seems likely to be one of the last great "ripped from the headlines" episodes of the Law and Order universe. (I won't completely rule out SVU making a serious rebound post-cast-adjustments, but it seems unlikely right now.) However much I hyped up the ripping of Spider-Man in my own mind, the actual episode was somehow even better. The depiction of stage flying was amazing. The faux songs were amazing. Cynthia Nixon as Not Julie Taymor was AMAZING.

The Killing, 1.13: "Orpheus Descending"

- I can't sustain the exquisite levels of exasperation and rage sustained by Mo Ryan and Alan Sepinwall in their reviews of this finale, but I can try to put a finger on what specifically about this show was so disappointing to me.

I stopped watching week-to-week about a month before this finale; the show's vaguely defined structure of introducing and dismissing suspects made it fairly clear that the audience wasn't likely to get any important information about who killed Rosie until the writers were ready to reveal who, exactly, that was. Brent Sexton and Michelle Forbes continued to do strong work conveying the Larsens' grief, but there wasn't enough variation in their story from episode to episode. The political campaign wasn't engaging. Dismissed suspects faded away, out of the show entirely, where they could've been used to build the show's world. The show's story arc was oddly flat; in post-finale interviews Veena Sud said that she thought people were disappointed because they expected the show to be more like an average procedural. I actually think it's the opposite, as contemporary television structuring goes - people were disappointed because the show didn't behave more like an average serial. (And these days, I don't think anyone tuning into a show on AMC would expect a procedural of any kind.) The eight-to-thirteen-episode cable serial season, as it's come to be established in the past fifteen or so years, has come to represent a more thoughtful use of story and character with more rise and fall and flow than The Killing ever demonstrated.

The real disappointment to me, though, came in the finale's tying of Holder to some sort of conspiracy dedicated to implicating Richmond in the murder, at least in the short term. I watched the four episodes preceding the finale over the weekend, so I already knew that the show had been renewed. When I watched the Linden-and-Holder-focused "Missing," I thought that there could be something there for a second season. I could, conceivably, be engaged in a show about Linden and Holder solving an entirely different, better-written season-long mystery. But it seems that that dream is not to be. At the very least, the finale twist erodes the trust that had built up between them, and at worst it casts Holder as a villain and completely wastes the potential inherent in their partnership. It's not just that Holder was the only character I sort of liked after twelve episodes - Joel Kinnaman was more or less keeping the show afloat with his squirrelly energy - it's that the writers seemed so determined to keep everything shrouded in mystery for as long as possible that they ultimately left Linden not unrelatable but unaccessible. The best detective-driven shows can make you care about a case simply because their protagonist cares, regardless of whether they're "likable" in a traditional sense - I keep wistfully thinking of Veronica Mars and Hank Dolworth - but Linden is still practically a blank in all those respects. Upon the conclusion of this episode, AMC aired a commercial exhorting viewers to tune in next year to learn who really, truly killed Rosie Larsen. And all I could manage was a strangled cry that I simply don't care.

- The ads for the upcoming season of Breaking Bad felt like a mirage of quality storytelling and sustained story arcs in the desert of...whatever this was. I may or may not have exclaimed, "SAVE US, Vince Gilligan!" aloud to my television.

- I feel like Cold Case is being unfairly maligned in the criticism of the things that weren't so great about The Killing. Yes, the show often felt like one long episode of today's standard crime procedurals, with suspects introduced and dismissed as if the weeks between episodes were more like extra-long commercial breaks. But Cold Case, more than any of its peers, excelled at one thing at which The Killing routinely failed: establishing an emotional connection to the victim. The best Cold Case episodes made the victim feel like a real person, and made their death feel like a tragedy. The Killing did neither, and I think many of the show's other problems stem from the void that Rosie Larsen continues to be.

- I love reading online responses to shows like this, and this finale produced a smorgasbord of them. Here I'll cite Myles McNutt's interesting piece about the AMC brand and how The Killing may be undermining their image. I realized during over this past television season that I'm less and less willing to take it on faith that AMC's new shows are worth taking a chance on. I'll probably give Hell on Wheels a chance when it premieres, but I'll be much warier of its potential than I will be for, say, the new shows coming from HBO or FX.

- I understood why AMC decided to cancel Rubicon back in the fall, truly. But, I'll be honest, now the fact that this amorphous show gets to have a second season and we will never get more time with Rubicon's characters is kind of pissing me off.

Pretty Little Liars, 2.2: "The Goodbye Look"

- I love how these girls' parents try to dictate something like keeping them separate from one another but then contribute no real supervision to attempt to enforce it.

- In my imagination, outside of class all the other students talk about how blatantly obvious it is that Ezra and Aria are hooking up. (Oh, how I hoped Mona would actually say as much to Aria.) "He was giving our English class this heartfelt goodbye, but was so clearly talking to only her. He didn't break eye contact with her the whole time!" "I totally saw them making out on the hood of his car out in the parking lot!"

- Parents on teen shows are interesting. On the one hand, they can end up being a vital puzzle piece that makes the show great - your Joyce Summers, your Harold and Jean Weir, your Graham and Patty Chase. On the other, some work fine without them - I've basically accepted that we're never going to meet most of the parents on Glee, no matter how little narrative sense it makes. PLL, besides the obvious gap between imagined and actual authority cited above, tends to use them fairly well. Here, though, I find myself really, really wanting to meet the Cavanaughs. Who are these mysterious people who raised these two weirdos, perhaps the weirdest kids in a town full of strange, twitchy teenagers? What are their family dinners like? Do they not notice that Toby projects sadness all around him all the time, or that Jenna is seriously, seriously creepy, or do they just not care? Every time one of them mentions their parents, I'm like, "I must see these people made flesh!"

Friday Night Lights, 5.10: "Don't Go"

"Apt" seems insufficient as a descriptor for that episode title. I've had, I don't know, over a year to accept that this show is ending, but it didn't really hit home until this episode. Tim's parole hearing, especially Buddy's surprisingly touching speech to the board, broke some sort of emotional dam inside me, whence flowed a veritable geyser of tears. I'm not prepared for the next three weeks.

Week in TV: May 29-June 4

Game of Thrones - 1.7, "You Win or You Die"

- In Which the Starks' deeply ingrained sense of honor begins to come back to bite them in the ass - a theme that I'm sure will only get more and more heartbreakingly wearying as the series progresses.

- I'm not sure that I ever had the impression from the books that Tywin Lannister was the sort to literally get his hands dirty, but I can't quibble with such a perfectly badass introduction. I really love Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's performance in the episode's opening scene as well - you get so much of the fraught relationship between the Lannisters just from the way he shows Jaime quietly shrinking in the presence of his father.

- It's interesting that the show is making me notice parallels that I didn't necessarily see in the books , just from the ways the different story threads are arranged - specifically, I never really thought about the relationships in common between Jorah and Dany with the Dothraki and the Old Bear and Maester Aemon at the wall until their scenes were put together in this episode.

- Idle Thought: It occurred to me as I read Alan Sepinwall's piece on the Deadwood pilot that maybe part of the reason why GoT's recurring use of Expositional Monologuing with Prostitutes feels so clunky is because Al Swearengen already proved himself the master of the form.

Friday Night Lights - 5.8, "Fracture"

- Kyle Chandler has had many great moments across this series, but Coach Taylor quietly yet aggressively running Derek off of his property has to rank in the top ten. Julie must've told her illicit T.A. paramour exactly nothing about her parents to make him think that showing up in Dillon was a good idea.

- I missed the opening credits, and thus got to be pleasantly surprised by Matt's appearance (and, sure, let out a bit of a girly shriek). I may have to re-embrace my final-season-of-Lost strategy of deliberately ignoring the credits to keep the guest appearances as fresh as possible.

- It's really too bad this show has already wrapped. The ladies of the Landing Strip deserve to have their own webisodes where they dole out beauty tips and relationship advice.

Other Shows

The summer season of internet TV writers rewatching past shows began this week, and there's a lot of shows I just might rewatch along with them - Six Feet Under, Veronica Mars, Deadwood. Sunday's popularity as the night for cable dramas means that even with So You Think You Can Dance, the summer schedule of new programming has really front-loaded weeks. And rewatching should mean that I can pace myself week-by-week and resist the temptation to marathon.

In particular, I really enjoyed Ryan McGee's piece on the Alias pilot, because it articulated a lot of things I haven't previously put together about the show's significance in my development as a television viewer and fan. I've already written here about how Freaks and Geeks marks a turning point in my TV-watching evolution, but I don't think I've given the same degree of thought to Alias. I was a sophomore in high school when Alias premiered and, like Freaks and Geeks, Alias was one of the first shows that I really loved in a way that I knew was fundamentally different from watching NBC's Thursday night lineup just because it was popular.

It was the first show where I had a concept of the showrunner behind the scenes (J.J. Abrams, in this case) and how he shaped and drove what happened on the show. It was the first show where I really looked at fan sites online. The first two seasons are some of the first, if not the first, TV DVDs I owned. It isn't just a game-changer for network television as a serial, as McGee outlines, but on a personal level it gave me a degree of familiarity with genre television I hadn't had before, which in turn made me more receptive to shows like Battlestar Galactica and Lost (and probably about a dozen others I could name). If Freaks and Geeks helped me to define my concept of myself as an independent television viewer, Alias helped me think about the kinds of genres I wanted to explore and thematic paths I was then interested in traveling down.

Week in TV: May 22-28

Game of Thrones - 1.6, "A Golden Crown"

- Peter Dinklage and Jane Espenson: a match made in snarky-fantasy-TV Heaven. (I'll also add props for Arya's excellent "bitch, please" asides when Sansa talks about how much she wants to stay in King's Landing and bear Joffrey's babies.) Of all the show's characters, I think Tyrion's voice is losing the least in translation from the original book, and Dinklage is doing a bang-up job. When I read A Clash of Kings, I kept thinking that if that material made it to the show relatively intact then he'd probably end up with an Emmy, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if he sneaks up and becomes a frontrunner for the award this season.

- I have mixed feelings about having read (most) of the books before watching this show. (I don't know that I've mentioned before that I'm in the middle of A Feast for Crows. It's slower going than the first three.) On the one hand, knowing who dies when and how terribly tinges some scenes with an air of tragedy that's hard to shake (the different combinations of people who don't know they'll never see each other again in the departures from Winterfell in the second episode made me unexpectedly burst into tears - I didn't realize before then that I cared that much). On the other, it does occasionally give things a bit of "yelling-at-the-screen-during-a-horror-movie" flair. Like that scene where Sansa made up with Joffrey - sometimes it's an "Oh, Sansa," sometimes it's a "Girl, RUN," sometimes it's a "Ooh, honey, this is not going to work out in your favor." Good times.

Glee - 2.22, "New York"

This episode ended up seriously frustrating me, and I'm trying to put a finger on why without devolving into a pure rant. I just still can't believe that they tried to play off Rachel and Finn kissing as the reason that the club didn't make it past the first cut at Nationals and not their unformed, unfocused, bullshit "rehearsal" "process." It seems insulting to a) songwriters and b) actual glee clubs who actually work to prepare themselves for competition to suggest that a group - even with the "pluck" and "determination" of the New Directions - would show up at a competition like this with barely a day's work on their performances and not be repeatedly and dramatically shown up. (Sure, they didn't make the cut, but twelfth? Seriously?) I haven't been in a chorus in over a decade, but chunks of songs I sang then surface out of my mind all the time. You know why? Because we practiced them - ad nauseum. As much as the show tried to sort of place Jesse in the non-dreamer villain column in critiquing the club, he was also mostly right. There have been enough song performances that have landed more in the "flight of fancy" realm than the "actual performance" one this season for me to think must be some way for this show to show the club taking the competition structure as seriously as they pretend to and still showcase a variety of songs.

I keep thinking about this show in comparison with Friday Night Lights - last season, I kept thinking that Will is the kind of character who imagines himself to be someone like Coach Taylor, but is actually more like Assistant Coach Stan. (Except I actually wish FNL would follow up on that one time when Julie awkwardly ran into Assistant Coach Stan at that gay bar, and never want to see another story about Will's romantic life ever again.) FNL lets the structure of the competitive season shape the show, and even though its characters are sometimes underdogs, it never pretends that the team's success happens without focused hard work. I wish Glee had enough confidence in its storytelling to do the same.

Other Shows:

Oz

- The first three seasons felt like some of the most human television I've ever seen, asking the viewer to consider people and society and how they're all held together in a way that felt truly unlike any other show I've watched. It's a fascinating snapshot of domestic politics in the United States in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and I doubt that another show will ever offer as thoughtful a portrayal of the issues involved in the death penalty. The later seasons devolve a bit into sensationalism, more melodramatic storytelling and distractingly prominent guest stars, but it remains a singular show. I can see seeds of the cable TV revolution in Oz, though I can also see why the show may not have received a lot of awards attention even with its superlative acting ensemble. I'm even more intrigued now to watch The Sopranos and The Wire.

- The fact that nearly every character on this show is a Bad Dude or Lady has given an unsettling air to so many things - Criminal Intent, Fringe, those Farmer's Insurance ads with J.K. Simmons...I'm not sure I could go back to watching Dexter even if I wanted to. I think the only media that doesn't feel adversely impacted is Dean Winters' set of "Mayhem" ads for Allstate. That being said, that ubiquity just reinforces the feeling that the casting directors who work with HBO's shows don't get nearly enough credit as star-makers, or even just as discoverers and highlighters of talent. (In my dreams, next year Vanity Fair devotes one of their excellent photo spreads to 15 years of HBO dramas.)

- It was interesting to finish watching this show in the same week when Christopher Meloni's decision to leave Law and Order: SVU was announced, as Oz repeatedly made it dramatically clear that SVU was wasting Meloni's boatloads of God-given charisma.

- This was the first full series I watched via HBOGo, and while I'm not overly fond of watching things on the computer I was pleasantly surprised by the streaming service. While the actually streaming software (or maybe just the site's bandwidth, I don't know, I'm not a techie) still seems to need some tweaking (it's not as consistent for me as, say, the Netflix player), the selection of series in particular is great - the streaming counters the main frustration of watching HBO dramas through Netflix, where the breakdown of episodes-per-disc means that watching multiple seasons can move at a snail's pace. It's verrry tempting to blaze through the relevant remaining entries on my "best of the 00s" wishlist (four down in the last 18 months - holla!) - for now I'll settle for figuring out how it can best supplement the reading I'm starting to work on for comps.

Week in TV: May 15-21

Game of Thrones

- I kind of loved the scene with Renly & Loras, if only because it makes me really excited for the show to introduce more of the Tyrells - doesn't "capitalize on an intimate or vulnerable moment with your partner to advance your personal agenda" seem like a move straight out of the Queen of Thorns' playbook? I love the way the books increasingly present the Tyrells as super-schemers, but with less of the overinflated sense of self you see in other houses, and I think that the show's original writing could draw Margaery in particular as an interesting counterpart to Sansa.

- The beginning of the trip to the Eyrie was just the best - the uneasy side-eye action between Catelyn and Tyrion while Lysa rants crazily from her throne? THE BEST.

- I forgot to mention previously how much I love the opening credits. I can't wait to see how they render Riverrun, the Twins and Harrenhal.

The Killing

I'm going to start letting episodes accumulate on the DVR and watch them all closer to when the season ends. I was just so disengaged during this hour, and found at the end that I didn't particularly care about that disengagement. Still well-performed by its principal actors, still drearily-paced.

Law and Order: Criminal Intent

I don't know that I've ever seen an episode of any Law and Order franchise use a flashback like this one did. Connecting Goren's therapy back to his interplay with Nicole Wallace was cleverly written and well-edited; I hope they keep drawing on that sort of continuity in this set of episodes.

90210

I couldn't let the season finale pass without observing how much I enjoyed the storyline of Adrianna switching out Silver's meds. It was Classic Spelling: a circumstance that would be horrible if it occurred in real life, but that made for excellent melodramatic television (like Adam Carrington painting Jeff Colby's office with lead paint to gaslight him back in the day on Dynasty). This episode's appearance of the Ghost of Javier was just the icing on the cake.

How I Met Your Mother

The semi-reveal of the wedding at the end of this episode was so terribly frustrating, and perfectly encapsulated the things that have been distancing me from my former status as a fan of HIMYM. The writers keep throwing the ball out ahead and then promising that the journey to get where the show is going will be worth certain information remaining shrouded in mystery. But - it isn't. I used to be so excited for this show, but when I heard that it was being renewed for not one, but two more seasons, I just felt exhausted. I believe that they could still have great stories remaining for the characters. I believe they could mine good material from Lily and Marshall having a baby. I believe they could find their Paul Rudd, so to speak, in casting a girlfriend for Ted who's not an unbelievably grating character (or even, Heaven forbid, the Mother). It just doesn't seem like Bays and Thomas are willing to go there without a set endpoint, and I don't know how much more patience I have for wheel-spinning.

Friday Night Lights

I love how Billy and Mindy are a) turning into Taylors-in-Training, with various hits and misses as mentors to the teens in their lives and b) adopting Luke and Becky as surrogates for Tim and Tyra. Their messiness is so endearing.

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...