2014 Weekly TV Recap (June 29 - July 5)

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Tuesday July 1

Tyrant (FX), Episode 2 "State of Emergency"

GRADE: C-

Brief Description: There is absolutely nothing compelling about "Tyrant"- which just goes to show you what poor writing this show has considering a dude got his dick bit off and a terrorist attack happened during this young season. Tyrant should be awesome and a man's man show; I mean what guy doesn't love "The Godfather"? Yet, I went through all of "State of Emergency" searching the internet on my phone and not paying attention to the episode. I've seen a lot of posts on the internet (from some very credible critics) hating on lead Adam Raynor's acting, and I don't think he's terrible in the least, but he's certainly not doing anything to draw me in either, and he's certainly no Al Pacino as Michael Corleone. I think the real problem with the show is that there isn't a single well-developed character, and everybody is just a two-dimensional stereotype. That means you don't care about any plot points, and you certainly don't care about any political message the show tries to deliver. Tyrant is produced by Howard Gordon who also produces Homeland, and Tyrant feels like another poor, terrible extension of what Homeland is now.

Breaking Bad Review: Ozymandias

Breaking Bad (AMC), Episode 14 of Season 5
"Ozymandias"
Directed By: Rian Johnson
Written By: Moira Walley-Beckett

GRADE: A+

Brief Description: There were two episodes that aired after "Ozymandias"which were "Granite State" and "Felina". "Felina" was regarded at the time (and obviously still is) one of the best series finales of all time. My own personal problems with "Felina" aside, I like to think "Ozymandias" as the true series finale, with the other two episodes acting like an epilogue. "Ozymandias" was by far and away the best episode Breaking Bad aired in 2013 during it's final eight episodes, and I'd like to give it its own post as dedication to the awesomeness that this episode was.

2014 TV Weekly Recap (June 22 - June 28)

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Sunday June 22

Halt and Catch Fire (AMC), Episode 4 "Close To The Metal"

GRADE: B-

Brief Description: Halt and Catch Fire tries to take a slight step back from the building of the portable computer and focus on its main three characters, Joe, Gordon, and Cameron, while adding heavy focus and depth to Donna who seemed to be there solely as a cliche nagging wife. H&CF does its best to try and give these characters the most compelling story line possible, but it's just not clicking. The stakes aren't there and the characters aren't that well defined or developed. It does its best by making Joe out to be a villain and he gets beat up by some cops this episode, but I just don't care. This show hasn't done anything to make me truly care about these characters, and it's just not doing anything to suck me in to make me want to continue watching. 

Tuesday June 24

Tyrant (FX), Episode 1 "Pilot"

GRADE: B

Brief Description: Truthfully, I have no idea how I feel about Tyrant. I didn't hate it and it passed the iPhone Test where I was more focused on the show than my iPhone, but it also didn't do anything to make me want to stay either. I will continue watching it, but I may give up with it soon along with Halt and Catch Fire. The pilot to Tyrant plays out exactly like the plot of The Godfather. Adam Raynor plays Bassam "Barry" Al-Fayeed and he is the Michael Corrleone character. His father is the Don Vito Corrleone character and the dictator of a fictional Iran/Iraq-esque country. Barry is self-exiled and living in L.A. because he doesn't want to be in the violent business that his father is in. However, and just like in The Godfather, a wedding brings Barry back to his home land, and wouldn't you know it, he gets sucked in and stays a while longer. Barry has an older brother, Jamal, who is a hybrid of Sonny and Fredo. Jamal is the "bad son" who stays and loves to rape and take advantage of his power. A character like Jamal should be a character we all love to hate, but he's so one-dimensional that I never had any feelings for him whatsoever. How I felt about Jamal is how I felt about the pilot to Tyrant as a whole. It's cliche, one-dimensional, under-written, and not that well-acted, but there's also a clear capability to become better and more engaging. Despite all my negativity towards it, I'll continue watching a few more episodes, and I will give this FX show a chance.

Orange Is The New Black Review: We Have Manners, We're Polite

Orange Is The New Black (Netflix), Episode 13 of Season 2
"We Have Manners, We're Polite"
Written By: Jenji Kohan
Directed By: Constantine Marks
Flashback Of: N/A

GRADE: A+

Brief Description: My general take on season finales is that one episode can't change a season. A great finale to a terrible season (a la Season 2 of House of Cards) is still a terrible season and a terrible finale to a great season (a la Season 1 of Homeland) is still a great season. The season finale of Orange Is The New Black is the exception to the rule so to speak. The first half of this season was incredible, while the second half stumbled a bit, the 90 minute season finale tied up almost every loose end. "We Have Manners, We're Polite" was the reason we saw the previous 12 episodes and it capped an excellent end to an excellent season.

Orange Is The New Black Review: It Was The Change

Orange Is The New Black (Netflix), Episode 12 of Season 2
"It Was The Change"
Written By: Sara Hess
Directed By: Phil Abraham
Flashback Of: Vee

GRADE: A

Brief Description: A storm is coming to Litchfield! Not only do we get a literal storm, but the war between Vee and Red is finally here. I've been complaining for a few episodes about how the war between Vee vs. Red was not nearly at the level it should be. We finally got the episode I've been waiting for and that we all should have gotten a few episodes back. Even without the last two scenes between Vee and Red, this episode was still an "A". We spent a fair amount of time focusing on some minor characters, mainly Ruiz, but for the most part, this episode was filled with the characters and story lines this entire season had been building towards. Even in scenes without Vee or Red in them, the threat of a fight breaking out lingered over everything.

Orange Is The New Black Review: Take A Break From Your Values

Orange Is The New Black (Netflix), Episode 11 of Season 2
"Take A Break From Your Values"
Written By: Nick Jones
Directed By: Constantine Makris
Flashback Of: Sister Ingalls

GRADE: C+

Brief Description: I have no idea how a show as great as Orange Is The New Black has been can come so far off of the rails as it has become. But truthfully, I don't think we should be surprised. While Jenji Kohan created Orange after coming off of a long running, slightly successful, slightly critically revered show, it's not like Weeds was ever considered the Mad Men of Breaking Bad, or even Dexter, of its time. To it's credit, it does have a handful of major Primetime Emmy awards, but nowhere in its eight year run was it ever considered as great of a show has Orange Is The New Black has been. And now that we're almost done with Season 2, you can see the seems start to tear and the thread start to unravel, just like Weeds did. To be fair, "Take A Break From Your Values" as a stand alone episode is not a C+. It's better than a lot of shows out there. However, the gap for where Season 2 should be this late in its run versus where it is now is just staggering.

2014 TV Weekly Recap (June 15 - June 21)

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Sunday June 15

Game of Thrones (HBO), Episode 10 "The Children"

EPISODE GRADE: B+

SEASON GRADE: A/A+

Brief Description: As amazing as Game of Thrones has been this season, and its fourth season was easily its best season to date, there are still plenty of story lines within this story that I just don't care about. Many of those story lines were prominently featured in "The Children". I absolutely don't give a shit about Bran, and now the fact that there's a magical addition to his story makes it even worse, Stannis should be a character I care about but I don't, and Khalessi's story arc in Season 4 was terrible. But with that being said, the ending of "The Children" was incredible- first with the fight and then death of The Hound, and then of course everything with Peter Dinklage is fan-fucking-tastic. That moment where he kills Shae, and then his father is one of the best of the series, but it still wasn't as good as when he was on trial this season.

It actually worries me that Tyrion is still alive, but will now be in Essos. Of course we all wanted Tyrion to live, but I think I'd rather have him die than have him be boring in another country. A huge chunk of what makes Tyrion great as a character was how he was perceived in Westeros and the Lannister family dynamic. He loses both while in Essos, and that could be a recipe for disaster.

However, despite the fact that that Season 4 ended as somewhat of a stumbling block, that doesn't automatically discount the amazing eight episodes that preceded it. Season 4 ended up shrinking the cast and we ended up spending more time with characters we care about. The arc of Season 4 was different, for the better. As opposed to building one giant arc for the entire season like 1-3 did, Season 4 created many mini-arcs, making the middle sections of the season much more enjoyable. As opposed to dragging their feet around Episode 5, we got great episodes in Season 4 like "The Laws of Gods and Men" and "Oathkeeper". Game of Thrones doesn't get a full "A+" in my book, as I only reserve that grade for mind-blowing, game-changing seasons like Season 4 of Breaking Bad and Season 2 of Justified, but when the year is done, I'm confident I'll have Game of Thrones as my #1 show of the year- a thought I never thought I'd have 2 or 3 years ago. 

Orange Is The New Black Review: Little Mustachioed Shit

Orange Is The New Black (Netflix), Episode 10 of Season 2
"Little Mustachioed Shit"
Written By: Sian Heder
Directed By: Jennifer Getzinger
Flashback Of: Piper & Alex

GRADE: B-

Brief Description: For an episode that should have worked so well on paper, both from the prominent story line of Vee vs. Poussey to having acclaimed director Jennifer Getzinger on board (she directed some of the best Mad Men episodes including "The Suitcase" and "For Immediate Release"), this episode was by far and away the worst of the season so far. A big part of this was that the prominent story lines should have happened at least three episodes sooner (which really makes me re-think the high grades I gave episodes like Episode 5's "A Whole Other Hole" and Episode 6's "You Also Have A Pizza") as well as the fact that little moments for minor characters like Morello and Sophia (plus an unnecessary flashback involving Alex) should not exist this late in the season.

Orange Is The New Black Review: 40oz of Furlough

Orange Is The New Black (Netflix), Episode 9 of Season 2
"40oz of Furlough"
Written By: Lauren Morelli
Directed By: S.J. Clarkson
Flashback Of: Red & Vee

GRADE: B

Brief Description: We are way too late in the season to have an episode like this. If "40oz of Furlough" aired three episodes ago, mainly with the flashbacks, then this episode would be another solid "A". However, we can only hint at the Red vs. Vee war for so long before something is actually done about it. Don't get me wrong, the flashbacks were great and the Red vs. Vee story line is consistently the first or second best story line in a given week depending on how terrible or amazing Piper's story is. But a war has been brewing for so many episodes now that I've lost count on how many times I've mentioned it in my recaps.

Orange Is The New Black Review: Appropriately Sized Pots

Orange Is The New Black (Netflix), Episode 8 of Season 2
"Appropriately Sized Pots"
Written By: Alex Regnery & Hartley Voss
Directed By: Daisy von Scherler Mayer
Flashback Of: Rosa

GRADE: A

Brief Description: This is probably my favorite episode of the season so far, and I don't think it's a coincidence this happened to coincide with the first Piper heavy episode since the season opener.  But before I get into the episode, I need to get some technical things out of the way. First, the only way I was able to understand what the characters were saying in the flashbacks is by having the Closed Captions on. That means I either had to toggle back and forth throughout the entire episode, or I had to leave the CC on the entire time (which I did do and strongly disliked reading what I was hearing). I have no idea why the natural setting of this episode wasn't to have all the Spanish be subtitled? The second is the poor narrative function the show did by using Rosa in the flashbacks. At first glance, I thought we were doing a Blanca flashbacks considering how extremely similar the actress who played Young Rosa looks like Blanca. It was jarring for a brief moment for me, but then I figured it out as not only did Rosa say she robbed banks back in "A Whole Other Hole" (and I actually remembered her name was Rosa and not "That Cancer Prisoner") but the camera panned to present day Rosa's face right before the flashback. However, my wife, who is a pretty smart cookie, didn't figure it out until the second flashback scene. I can't imagine she was the only one.

Orange Is The New Black Review: Comic Sans

Orange Is The New Black (Netflix), Episode 7 of Season 2
"Comic Sans"
Written By: Sara Hess
Directed By: Andrew McCarthy
Flashback Of: Black Cindy

GRADE: A

Brief Description: We are most certainly heading for a Vee vs. Red showdown as both make huge power strides in "Comic Sans". Vee and Taystee's crew starting using the tobacco Vee sneaks in to roll cigarettes and their business explodes immediately. Vee uses Taystee, Watson, and Black Cindy as salesmen while Suzanne handles the grunt work. Outside of the prison, Red's greenhouse pipeline is back in full force. Now that she's completed her good will tour, it's time to start making money. We still don't know where she stands with her prison family just yet, but she's certainly on her way to becoming Mama Bird again. Both Vee and Red show that you don't need the kitchen to gain power, as the Hispanics are clearly third tier during this power struggle right now. Gloria, the leader of the Hispanics has to come to Red to barter, and Flaca, Maritza, Maria ( I still need IMDB to look up the Hispanic inmates' names despite the show doing a better job actually telling the audience their names) and the other Hispanic girls can't get enough cigarettes.

2014 Weekly TV Recap (June 8 - June 14)

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Sunday June 8

Game of Thrones (HBO), Episode 9 "The Watchers on The Wall"

GRADE: A-

Brief Description: Historically, penultimate episodes of seasons of Game of Thrones have been the best episodes the show has ever done, and that includes the show's best episode, "Blackwater" (the second to last episode of Season 2). The penultimate of season 4, "The Watchers on The Wall" had a lot to live up to. Unfortunately, it failed to meet those expectations. While having a giant action sequence set in one location is normally the key to a fan-fucking-tastic Game of Thrones episode (see: "Blackwater") there's a second part to this equation. The action has to involve characters we care about. The star of "Blackwater" was Tyrion Lannister, the show's best character. The star of "The Watchers on The Wall" was Jon Snow, a character I wouldn't shed too many tears over if he died. For the past 4 seasons, the scenes involving The Wall were always some of the least compelling parts because the danger never seemed immediate. We knew The White Walkers and The Wildlings were a threat, but certainly aren't even close to the threat that Stannis Baratheon was to King Joffrey in Season 2. Even if Mance Rayder's army did win the battle this week, so what? It would still be another season before they took over Westeros (if they could). The stakes felt significantly lower in "The Watchers on The Wall" then they ever felt in the prior penultimate episodes, which in turn affected the overall quality. That's not to say this episode was complete garbage, Quite the contrary. It was an action-packed episode that gave us wonderful little moments (Sam reuniting with Gilly, Ygritte's death) along with incredible and mind-blowing action sequences. It was a non-stop thrill ride that ended too quickly and didn't feel like an hour had passed. Hence the "A-" grade. However, it should have been more. Especially considering Game of Thrones is currently the best show on television.

Halt and Catch Fire (AMC), Episode 2 "FUD"
GRADE: A-

Brief Description: Halt and Catch Fire already has the reputation of being one of AMC's vastly inferior products and being a show that feels reverse engineered from other AMC shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men. In fact, it seems like you're legally not allowed to talk about the show without mentioning that the Lee Pace and Scoot McNairy characters are analogous to Don Draper and Walter White, respectively. But for all the AMC comparisons, no one seems to be mentioning Halt and Catch Fire in its own right. I really like this show a lot, and I'm going to continue watching for the rest of the season. We find out here what Joe MacMillan's play actually is- to engineer a computer that's twice the speed for half the cost. That notion didn't really appeal to me all that much, as it doesn't feel, as Joe puts it, "The thing that gets you to the thing". Building another computer doesn't seem all that revolutionary and I sided with Cameron about her anger towards the project. On the other hand, Joe's idea at the end of the episode, to build a portable computer IS revolutionary, and we obviously know from history and living in 2014 that that truly is the future of computers. That does feel like "The thing that gets you to the thing". However, what really sucked me in and the reason I want to stick around for the entire season is the corner "FUD" immediately puts itself into. Instead of attacking Cardiff through the courts, IBM attacks their wallets. IBM steals almost all of Cardiff's clients in one fell swoop that it leaves the company with almost nothing, and thereby will stop the production of Joe's new computer. It's a ballsy and daring play to create a status quo of this show and then immediately destroy it. You have to assume that Cardiff or Joe or somebody soon will find money to keep this project going, but this move IBM just pulled seems like the type of move that would immediately destroy a company, and I have no idea just how the show will pull Cardiff out this mess. 

Tuesday June 10

Fargo (FX), Episode 9 "A Fox, A Rabbit, and A Cabbage"

GRADE: A-

Brief Description: Admittedly, this episode was probably an "A" or an "A+" but it's only an "A-" because of my own personal viewing experience. For starters, I normally watch Fargo as one continuous episode, but I watched "A Fox, A Rabbit, and A Cabbage" On Demand, which means commercial breaks and this episode works better when you watch it during one continuous sitting. Also, I watched the first half doing other things, and watching anything distracted goes ruins your enjoyment of the show. That's my fault because I missed a tense filled episode. It goes to show you that a little music can go a long way. Sometimes it worked to the show's disadvantage (once Lester was at his home in Minnesota I knew he was safe) but often times it worked to its advantage (when Lester and his wife initially get to the Las Vegas elevator/ Malvo and Keith Carradine's conversation in the diner). But really, there is only one thing to talk about in this episode, and that's what a fucking horrible human being Lester Nygaard is. Despite his arrogance testing Malvo and later Deputy Solverson, sending his wife in to die at Malvo's hand is unforgivable. Lester has done some pretty terrible things during the course of these 9 weeks, but he still remained a protagonist in some respects, analogous to Jamie Lannster in Season 3 of Game of Thrones. But after what he did to his wife, here's hoping he dies in the series finale next week.

Orange Is The New Black Review: You Also Have A Pizza

Orange Is The New Black (Netflix), Episode 6 of Season 2
"You Also Have A Pizza"
Written By: Stephen Falk
Directed By: Allison Anders
Flashback Of: Poussey

GRADE: A-

Brief Description: Love is in the air in Litchfield.. Not just with the prisoners, but with the prison guards and Larry and Poussey and everybody else. "You Also Have A Pizza" only covers about 48 hours worth of time around Valentine's Day, yet it feels like months. So many characters get great little moments, and this episode shows what a true ensemble cast this is really is and also that Piper is the star of it.

Let's get the major story points out of the way first before we get into the little characters moments. "You Also Have A Pizza" closes some mini arcs while also setting up some new ones. We finally figure out exactly what Red's plan is, as she finds an unused sewage system that she can sneak supplies in and out of. While it's extremely unbelievable that a security flaw of this magnitude actually exists, I'll buy it for the sake of this particular story. Red's power is on the rise as she hands out gifts to the fellow White inmates to get back in their good graces. While it's a great first gesture for some, it doesn't work for Gina and The Mute as they're still mad at her (rightfully so) for causing Gina's burn (which seemed even more apparent in this episode to me).

Orange Is The New Black Review: Low Self Esteem City

Orange Is The New Black (Netflix), Episode 5 of Season 2
"Low Self Esteem City"
Written By: Nick Jones
Directed By: Andrew McCarthy
Flashback Of: Gloria

GRADE: B+

Brief Description: The worst episodes so far this season has been the ones with little to no Piper. That's not to say Orange Is The New Black has any bad episodes so far, but the weaker ones (Episode 2's "Looks Blue, Tastes Red" and this episode) barely feature Piper. While Piper doesn't need to be in every scene like she seemingly was in Season 1, she does need some story arcs that we care about in every given week. While Taylor Schilling got a great moment this episode where she finally confronts Healy for leaving her that night she was attacked by Pennsatucky, other than that, she didn't have a whole to do this week. She learned that her grandmother is dying (in a funny game of Hot/Cold with her brother before the realization of the situation sank in) and I imagine her furlough will be granted so the random Larry and Polly scenes will eventually lead to something. But as for a stand alone episode, this story line was just "eh".

Orange Is The New Black Review: A Whole Other Hole

Orange Is The New Black (Netflix), Episode 4 of Season 2
"A Whole Other Hole"
Written By: Sian Heder
Directed By: Phil Abraham
Flashback Of: Lorna Morello

GRADE: A

Brief Description: Our de-facto three main characters, Piper, Red, and Vee, spend their time in "A Whole Other Hole" in some sort of power struggle with each of the three in different stages of it. At the beginning, Piper is on top, Vee is still climbing, and Red is at the bottom. Piper is back within the general population and the memory of why she was sent to the SHU is still fresh in the inmates minds. She spends the beginning part of the episode taking back items other prisoners took from her when they assumed Piper was never coming back (except for Suzanne's picture she took of Larry and Piper, she can keep that). She even stands up for herself to Big Boo, who looks like she's ready to whoop Piper's ass to keep Miss Claudette's afghan.

Orange Is The New Black Review: Hugs Can Be Deceiving

Orange Is The New Black (Netflix), Episode 3 of Season 2
"Hugs Can Be Deceiving"
Written By: Lauren Morelli
Directed By: Michael Trim
Flashback Of: Crazy Eyes

GRADE: A

Brief Description: Yes! We finally get a flashback episode of Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren. Yet, at the same time, the flashbacks felt somewhat of a let down. It's possible that we as Orange Is The New Black fans, myself included, anticipated a Crazy Eyes flash back episode too much that frankly anything was going to be disappointing. However, I think the real reason it felt like a let down was because there's so much more in Suzanne's background, that what we got in this episode was only the teeny-tiny tip of the iceberg. Similar to the flashbacks that we saw of Piper in Episode 1 of Season 2, we only saw a little bit of what makes this character tick in general, and not what got her into prison to begin with. We knew that Suzanne actually has a legitimate mental disorder, but that wasn't really explored too much in this episode. Some of the reason Suzanne is the way she is is because she was a black girl growing up in white suburbia, but as we see with Litchfield itself in a sense, race isn't the only factor. I wished we got a little bit more about who Suzanne really is, and the flashbacks here seemed so sparse, that there feels like there's a plethora more material to cover.

Orange Is The New Black Review: "Looks Blue, Tastes Red"

Orange Is The New Black (Netflix), Episode 2 of Season 2
"Looks Blue, Tastes Red"
Written By: Jenji Kohan
Directed By: Michael Trim
Flashback Of: Taystee

GRADE: A-

Brief Description: After spending the first episode of Season 2 of OITNB of essentially just Piper, we get an entire episode that's Piper free. Piper Chapman was our introduction into Litchfield, but now that we've had 13 episodes to fully see what Litchfield is like, it's nice to have an episode without Piper. We're in, now let's explore. As shown through "Thirsty Bird", and frankly all of Season 1, Piper surprisingly is one of the least interesting inmates in prison. That's not an indication of Taylor Schilling's acting, it's just the way this role is written. However, after having no Piper for a full hour, I almost feel like I'm in withdrawal. I need a little Piper in my life.