The Top 10 Best Television Episodes of 2017

10) "Who Rules The Land of Denial" 
Fargo (FX)
Season 3 / Episode 8
Premiere Date: June 7, 2017
Directed By: Mike Barker

Brief Description: I know the general consensus was the season 3 of Fargo is the show's worst season, but considering I wasn't the biggest fan on the sophomore attempt, I quite liked the latest from Noah Hawley and crew starring twins played by Ewan McGregor. What makes the show work so well is Hawley's masterful interpretation of films by the Coen Brothers- filmmakers who can make a straightforward kidnapping-gone-wrong film like Fargo and also an absolutely delightfully bonkers film like The Big Lebowski. What makes "Who Rules The Land of Denial" so great is the show's ability to play off of the Coen Brothers tropes and create a delightfully masterfully opening where Mary Elizabeth Winstead's character can be chased by goons one minute, and then sitting in a bowling alley of purgatory with The Wandering Jew (played by Ray Wise) the next.

9) "Time's Arrow" BoJack Horseman (Netflix)
Season 4 / Episode 11
Premiere Date: September 8, 2017
Directed By: Aaron Long

Brief Description: Season 4 of BoJack Horseman dealt a lot with the titular character coming to grips with his past and his relationship with his negligent mother. The series culminates in a trippy penultimate episode where the Bojack's mother (voiced by Wendie Malick) and her dementia flip between the past and present and your left with a David Lynch-ian experience unlike anything you've seen before. A remarkable episode from one of the best and smartest shows on television.

The Top 16 Best Shows of 2016

16) You're The Worst (FX)
Season 3
Created By: Stephan Falk
Starring: Chris Geere & Aya Cash

Click here to read why Episode 11's "The Inherent, Unsullied Qualified Value of Anything" was one of the best episodes of 2016






15) The Carmichael Show (NBC)
Season 2
Created By: Jerrod Carmichael
Starring: Jerrod Carmichael, Lorett Devine, & David Allen Grier


Click here to read about my thoughts on The Carmichael Show

14) Speechless (ABC)
Season 1
Created By: Scott Silveri
Starring: Minnie Driver & Micah Fowler

The 10 Best Television Episodes of 2016

10) "Shut Up and Dance" Black Mirror (Netflix)
Season 3 / Episode 3
Premiere Date: October 21, 2016
Starring: Alex Lawther & Jerome Flynn
Directed By: James Watkins

Brief Description: "Shut Up and Dance" mainly follows a young man named Kenny (Lawther) who is being blackmailed by an anonymous hacker to do horrendous things after getting caught masturbating. Along his journey he meets up with Hector (Flynn), and the two are asked to do one horrific act after another.

"Shut Up and Dance" may not be the best Black Mirror episode that premiered in 2016, but it's certainly the one that elicited the biggest emotional reaction from me. That reaction was mostly horror and anger, but at least it made me feel something. A lot of what Charlie Brooker and company did this season was to show the downsides of technology, whether it was how horrible it is to get your self-worth from online ratings or how terrible technology can be in the hands of the military amidst mass hysteria, but that's all most of the episodes did. We all know technology and the device you're reading this blog post on is bad for us, but so what? That's why the best Black Mirror episodes bring a human element and a very specific story (which in turn creates a broad audience) to the downsides of technology, and "Shut Up and Dance" did that and then some. This episode was Black Mirror at its bleakest, and I loved it.

9) "Master Slave" Mr. Robot (USA)
Season 2 / Episode 6
Premiere Date: August 10, 2016
Starring: Rami Malek & Christian Slater
Directed By: Sam Esmail

Brief Description: My personal  favorite moment of Mr. Robot was in the second half of the premiere when Scott Knowles takes a suitcase full of money and then lights it on fire while "Take Me Home" by Phil Collins plays, but this is a list of the best episodes, not the best moments (sort of). Therefore, I had to go with the best and weirdest episode of the series- the one were Elliot is stuck in a 90's sitcom with Alf. Mr. Robot has always been a show that's clearly, and for the better, different than any show on television. Creator, writer, director, producer Sam Esmail proved that once again with "Master Slave" where he used his main character's mental illness in order to tell the most creative stories possible.

How Game of Thrones Became The Most Enjoyable Show on Television

Game of Thrones is arguably the most popular show watched in America. It’s the one show you need to watch live unless you want to live in a hell hole without social media, it’s the most pirated show out there, unlike its closest competitor The Walking Dead, it’s actually good and wins Emmys as a result. Despite what recently departed guest star Ian McShane says about the show, it’s not all about tits and dragons.

Game of Thrones was not always the huge ratings behemoth (relatively speaking) that it is today thanks to word of mouth and The Internet in general. It also wasn’t the show that it is today. Based off of an extremely dense series of fantasy books by George R.R. Martin, the HBO show has had a lot of material to work with and adapt to a 10-episode series. In the beginning, we needed time to get to know this world. Martin literally built an entire world and the show spent an enormous amount of time sucking us deeper and deeper into it.

If I Had An Emmy Ballot: Dramas (2016 Edition)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

- Jon Bernthal (Daredevil)
- Kevin Carroll (The Leftovers)
- Michael McKean (Better Call Saul)
- Pedro Pascal (Narcos)
- Nick Sandow (Orange is the New Black)
- Christian Slater (Mr. Robot)

JUST MISSED: Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones)

Pedro Pascal has that charm and that energy that fills up your television screen with joy, and then he’s gone and you anxiously await his return. He was like that as The Viper in Season 4 of Game of Thrones and he’s like that as DEA agent Javier Pena in the Netflix guilty pleasure hit Narcos… Kevin Carroll’s John Murphy’s presence at the very beginning of Season 2 of The Leftovers was initially jarring, but Carroll’s performance sucked you in to this brave new world which made The Leftovers one of the very best shows of 2015… I can understand why Jonathan Banks gets all of the Emmy love for Better Call Saul, but like last year, I throw my hat in the ring for Michael McKean. McKean’s Chuck’s holier-than-thou smugness contrasted with Bob Odenkirk’s lovable rule-bender Jimmy is the key to what makes Better Call Saul work as well as it does without feeling like a true Breaking Bad prequel like the world Banks’ Mike Erhmantrout inhabits… Jon Bernthal’s performance as The Punisher in Season 2 of Netflix’s Daredevil definitely does not scream prestige, award-worthy television, but Berenthal and his incredible screen presence are so good that I found it difficult to leave him off of my list… There are so many great performances, mainly by females, in Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black, but Nick Sandow as Joe “Beercan” Caputo struggling to keep the prison afloat and then dealing with his Corporate Overlords was excellent in this past season… Even though you saw the twist coming regarding Christian Slater’s Mr. Robot, it didn’t diminish that wonderful feeling you got knowing that Slater is back and in a project worthy of his talents. 

The Silver Age of Television and The Shows That Defined It

TV critic Alan Sepinwall wrote elegantly about The Golden Age of Television in his book The Revolution Was Televised. It’s a phenomenal read for any television junkie, and while it doesn’t explicitly detail The Golden Age (the book purposefully leaves out comedies), it’s a great overview of the era.

I would recommend reading the nuances and specifics about the era in Mr. Sepinwall’s book, but the basic tenants of the revolution were an increase in prestige programming (which in turn led to more serialized series) which also led to an increase in networks. At the very beginning you had the three basics, ABC, CBS, and NBC. Over time the number of networks grew. The Golden Age saw an expansion of networks and having those networks get into the original programming game. HBO started to produce great original television content which led other networks like FX, AMC, and Showtime to do the same. That in turn led to great dramas such as The Shield, Dexter, and the aforementioned Mad Men and Breaking Bad.

I know many people would argue that we are still in The Golden Era of Television. We still have amazing television programming and television has become more serialized over the procedural nature that it used to be for decades. The Golden Era has changed things in television and that change is moving at a rapid pace. Further, what we used to know as television has almost disappeared.

The 14 Best TV Shows of 2014

Television programs and programming is in a weird place right now. The Golden Age of Television is long gone (although its official death came when Breaking Bad ended last year) and in its wake we're seeing a huge crop of quality TV shows from a variety of different sources. Yet despite the gross number of quality programming, there isn't a show like The Sopranos or Breaking Bad anymore. Hell, there isn't even a Lost anymore. You'd think with more traditional and non-traditional service providers cropping up that at least one of them would give us The Next Big Thing, but it hasn't happened yet. Instead, what we're left with is a shit ton of really-good-but-not-Holy-Shit-amazing shows. While the "Top 14 of 14" sounds like a gimmick, it's sort of not. There's just that much good television shows to talk about that I need to expand my list beyond a Top 10, but I had a difficult time going past 14. So without further ado, here is my list of The 14 Best TV Shows of 2014:

10 "Quick" Reactions to the 2014 Primetime Emmy Nominations

1) Modern Family

Holy cow, I don't think anyone saw this coming as Modern Family took a huge blow this year (or at least a huge blow according to its expectations). Again, two-time winner Eric Stonestreet fails to earn a nomination, but Sophia Vergara and Ed O'Neill join him. Only Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Julie Bowen earn a main acting nomination for their work on the show. The show also only earned one Outstanding Direction nomination (see, high standards, it normally gets at least two), and failed to earn any writing nominations. While the show itself was still nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, it lost a lot of nominations in 2014, and I suspect Modern Family is going to come up lame come award time.

2) Game of Thrones

While Modern Family is trending downwards, Game of Thrones is trending upwards. For those who said the Emmy's hate Game of Thrones is just absurd, considering the show had three Outstanding Drama Series nominations and Peter Dinklage is a former winner from the show. Not only does the show itself and Peter Dinklage earn another nomination this year, but this time they're joined by Lena Headly. Last year, Emilia Clarke earned a nomination in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series category, and this time it's Headley. It's nice to see other actors other than Dinklage get rewarded for their work on the show. Game of Thrones also earned an Outstanding Direction nomination for Neil Marshall for his work on the penultimate episode "The Watchers on the Wall" (although I would have preferred if it went to Alex Graves) and creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss earned a writing nomination for their work on the finale "The Children" (although I suspect it's for their work on the show as a whole).

Grading The Best TV Shows of the Year (So Far)

2014 is only halfway over, yet there have been a litany of great television shows that have aired. Many of them I've seen, a good a majority I have not. We live in an era of television that is classified by quantity over anything else, and seeing as I am just one man, I can only watch so much. But I have watched a buttload of shows, and here are my thoughts on every television show I've seen this year.


Community (NBC)
Season: 5
Created By: Dan Harmon
Original Start Date: January 2, 2014
Grade: A

Brief Description: While I was in the minority feeling that Dan Harmon deserved to get kicked off of his own show after the atrocious Season 3, I'm glad he was brought back for Season 5. Season 4 show runners Moses Port & David Guarascio did their best Dan Harmon impression, but easily came up short creating a soulless monster. Harmon dialed back the insane extremes he took his characters to in Season 3 (mainly Abed) in this new season, and in turn created one of the smartest and funniest sitcoms around. #RIPCommunity.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (FOX)
Season: 1b
Created By: Dan Goor & Michael Schur
Original Start Date: January 7, 2014
Grade: A

Brief Description: Brooklyn Nine-Nine was one of the smartest and funniest sitcoms of 2014 and is competing against Community for the best comedy of the year. Like most sitcoms, it took a little bit to get its bearings and its voice straightened out, but those stumbling blocks came in 2013. What the FOX sitcom aired in 2014 was a well-defined and hilarious work of art filled with three-dimensional characters. Based upon how strong Season 1 was, I have no qualms with the rookie comedy wining the Golden Globe last year for Best Comedy Show, and I hope it gets a handful of Emmy nominations in a few weeks.

2014 Emmy Predictions and Hopefuls: Outstanding Drama Series

Recently, the Emmy's released every person and show eligible in all of their categories for the 2014 Primetime Emmy's for their nomination ballot. This post is dedicated to everything related to Outstanding Drama Series category. It will be both who I think will actually earn a nomination as well as who I think deserves to earn a nomination. However, there is one main ground rule- I have to go off of the actual Emmy nomination ballot. Which means that if the series isn't actually eligible to earn a nomination in real life, then it's not eligible to be mentioned in this post. Makes sense, doesn't it? Let's begin!

DRAMA

WHO I THINK WILL GET A NOMINATION:

- Breaking Bad (AMC)
- Downton Abbey (PBS)
- Game of Thrones (HBO)
- House of Cards (Netflix)
- Mad Men (AMC)
- True Detective (HBO)

2014 TV Weekly Recap (June 15 - June 21)

CURRENT SHOWS AIRING

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. 

2014 Emmy Predictions and Hopefuls: Best Writing

Recently, the Emmy's released every person and show eligible in all of their categories for the 2014 Primetime Emmy's for their nomination ballot. This post is dedicated to everything related to Outstanding Writing in both the drama and comedy categories. It will be both who I think will actually earn a nomination as well as who I think deserves to earn a nomination. However, there is one main ground rule- I have to go off of the actual Emmy nomination ballot. Which means that if the series isn't actually eligible to earn a nomination in real life, then it's not eligible to be mentioned in this post. Makes sense, doesn't it? Let's begin!

DRAMA

WHO I THINK WILL GET A NOMINATION:

- Erin Levy (Mad Men) "The Monolith"

- George Mastras (Breaking Bad) "To'hajiilee"
- Matthew Weiner (Mad Men) "Waterloo"
- Nick Pizzolatto (True Detective) "The Secret Fate of All Life"

- Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad) "Felina"

2014 Emmy Questions: Game of Thrones

Click here for the introduction to The Cover 3's "2014 Emmy Questions" series

COLD, HARD LOCK NOMINATIONS: Best Drama Series, Best Supporting Actor (Peter Dinklage)

STRONG, EDUCATED GUESS NOMINATIONS: Best Screenplay (David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, "The Children"), Best Direction (Alex Graves, "The Children")

EDITOR'S NOTE: I actually wrote this article two weeks ago, but I wanted to wait until I saw/HBO aired every single episode of Season 4 before I made any cold hard analysis. This Emmy Question series is meant to be questions surrounding eligibility as well as the nominations themselves, however, this last Monday, the Emmy's released their nomination ballots, so we already know who and what is eligible right now. Although, this "curveball" really only changed Question Two.

QUESTION ONE: Will Emilia Clarke earn an Emmy nomination this year?

2014 Weekly TV Recap (June 8 - June 14)

CURRENT SHOWS AIRING

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.

2014 Emmy Power Rankings (Drama)

Last Monday, the Emmy's released their nomination ballot for their voters to vote on. It's a comprehensive list of every single person and show that is eligible in each particular category. This list right here is a Power Rankings of the top contenders in each particular category and how I believe the nominations will play out in a month. Who do I think will get a nomination? Who do I think is in the running but will come up just short? How many major nominations will your favorite show get? Find out when you check out our 2014 Emmy Power Rankings for Drama Series:


OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES

1) Breaking Bad (AMC)
2) True Detective (HBO)
3) Mad Men (AMC)
4) Downton Abbey (PBS)
5) Game of Thrones (HBO)
6) House of Cards (Netflix)
_______________

7) Masters of Sex (Showtime)
8) The Good Wife (CBS)
9) Homeland (Showtime)
10) Boardwalk Empire (HBO)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR

1) Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)
2) Matthew McConaughey (True Detective)
3) Jeff Daniels (The Newsroom)
4) Jon Hamm (Mad Men)
5) Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey)
6) Kevin Spacey (House of Cards)
_____________________

7) Woody Harrelson (True Detective)
8) Martin Sheen (Masters of Sex)
9) Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire)
10) James Spader (The Blacklist)
11) Damien Lewis (Homeland)


OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS

1) Claire Danes (Homeland)
2) Elizabeth Moss (Mad Men)
3) Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey)
4) Connie Britton (Nashville)
5) Kerry Washington (Scandal)
6) Robin Wright (House of Cards)
7) Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex)
_________________________

8) Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife)
9) Vera Farmiga (Bates Motel)
10) Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black)

10 Quick Reactions To The 2014 Emmy Nomination Ballot

Throughout the entire month of May, I wrote many Emmy Questions pieces regarding many of the shows eligible and likely to be nominated for an Emmy in 2014 including House of Cards, Mad Men, Modern Family, Breaking Bad and many, many others. You can check out all of my articles here. A lot of the questions for these particular shows were regarding which categories certain actors would be nominated in. The Emmy's helped answer those questions today as they released every single show and person eligible in every single Primetime Emmy category. Here are 10 "Quick" Reaction to the 2014 Emmy Nomination Ballot that was released today.

1) True Detective

Click Here For Our True Detective Emmy Questions Post

The biggest question of all during this "Emmy pre-season" is what category would Woody Harrelson throw his hat into. HBO isn't ashamed to do what they can in order to maximize nominations and prestige, especially considering True Detective is a mini-series yet it's nominated in the Drama Series categories. Matthew McConaughey is a lock to earn a nomination, and is probably the favorite to win Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, so it was unclear whether Woody Harrelson would also be considered a Lead Actor as opposed to a Supporting Actor. The lead actor category is already crowded, and adding Woody Harrelson into the mix makes it almost impossible for anyone to get a nomination!

However, Woody Harrelson was clearly a co-lead with McConaughey and is eligible as such. Even though HBO probably could have maximized its nominations by submitting Harrelson as a supporting actor, the network seems so confident in the show, that Harrelson was submitted as a lead.

I was correct that Cary Joji Fukunaga submitted "Who Goes There" with its excellent oner at the end of the episode for Outstanding Directing, but I was incorrect as to what episode Nick Pizzolatto would submit in the writing category. I thought it would be the show's pilot, but it turned out to be Episode 5, "The Secret Fate of All Life." Since both Fukunaga and Pizzolatto directed and wrote, respectively, all eight episodes by themselves, they're only eligible for one nomination each.

2014 TV Weekly Recap (June 1 - June 7)

CURRENT SHOW AIRING

Sunday June 1

Game of Thrones (HBO), Episode 8 "The Mountain and The Viper"

GRADE: B+

Brief Description: I am a firm believer that the ending does not make or break a season or an episode. A bad episode with a great ending is still a bad show. That's what "The Mountain and the Viper" was. Now that's not to say that you completely disregard the ending entirely, as it is still a part of the episode, but the excellent fight sequence at the very end does not excuse how mediocre the lead up to it was. Instead, the fight between The Mountain and The Viper (as well as Tyrion's monologue about his dim witted cousin smashing beetles) added a "+" to what was, overall, a "B" episode. I could care less about anything that happened to the Bolton clan/Theon and that goes double for Gilly. Maybe this was all a set up for the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones, which have historically been shit-in-your-pants incredible episodes, but as a stand alone episode, "The Mountain and The Viper" was just all right. 

Silicon Valley (HBO), Episode 8 "Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency"

EPISODE GRADE: B

SEASON GRADE: C+

Brief Description: Richard is such a meek character that he gets shit on constantly. It's ideally used for humor, but more often than not, it's just frustrating to watch him on screen. I guess that's what makes the end of "Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency" that much more rewarding (and it is rewarding to an extent), but I don't know if the winding journey we had to watch justifies the destination. It's certainly better than if Richard had lost the TechCrunch Disrupt, as all of Richard's hard work finally paid off, but so much of Season 1 was Richard being Richard, which made for unpleasant viewing. I wrote two weeks ago, after Silicon Valley's penultimate episode, that even if the finale was great, there was nothing that was going to get me to start watching Season 2. This finale was far from great, and if anything, the ending of "Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency" only made it seem as if Season 2 was going to be more of the same. 

Halt and Catch Fire (AMC), Episode 1 "I/O"

GRADE: B+

Brief Description: AMC does not have a good track record with new dramas within the past five years. This is especially surprising considering AMC is responsible for two of the greatest television shows in the history of mankind (Breaking Bad and Mad Men). Mad Men has the best pilot I've probably every seen from a drama series and Breaking Bad is not far behind it. Halt and Catch Fire's pilot isn't even remotely close to any of AMC's greats, as it's just riddled with cliches. Every scene I saw in H&CF I've seen in every other drama before, yet I was captivated by it here. The show definitely passed The Smart Phone Test- where I was more focused on the TV show than I was with my smart phone, and I will absolutely be looking forward to episode 2. However, I do hope this show gets better, as it can't remain on this same level as the pilot and also remain successful.

Tuesday June 3

Fargo (FX), Episode 8 "The Heap"

GRADE: B

Brief Description: Very similar to Fargo's second episode, "The Rooster Prince", "The Heap" was necessary for the season as a whole, but didn't work as a stand alone episode. Frankly, if the FX mini-series ended after Tuesday's episode, then all would be fine in the world. Fargo would still be considered a really good show, and the experiment would be considered a success. However, the good guy has to win, and therefore there's still more story to be told. Similar to the movie the mini-series is based off of, the bad guys need to get their comeuppance. Molly Solverson, who is now overtly Marge Gunderson from the movie considering she's now pregnant, is going to be the one to make everything right in the world. As much as I love Key & Peele as actors, their addition as new characters when the season was over halfway done was a bit odd, but after Tuesday's episode, it looks like the bumbling FBI agents will help Molly (because no way in hell was Gus going to do anything) bring down Molvo and Lester. I'm extremely excited to see the last two episodes to see how this series will end, and the "The Heap" was the first step towards the end.

Anytime

Orange Is The New Black (Netflix), Episode 1 "Thirsty Bird"
GRADE: A-

Brief Description: "Thirsty Bird" was a ballsy, ballsy episode for OITNB. We spent season 1 (mainly) following around Piper Chapman as she spends most of her time feeling like a fish out of water. However, by the end of the season, she's fully engrained within this prison culture. She may not be fully accepted, but she's engrained. Season 2 changes the status quo again by doing THE EXACT SAME THING as they transfer Piper to Chicago so she can testify at the trial of the kingpin who is (in some tenuous way) responsible for Piper's lock up. It's my understanding this scenario happened in the book took risk. And it paid off. Just because it was in Piper Kerman's book doesn't mean it had to be included into the show considering the vast majority of Season 1 came from the mind of Jenji Kohan and her writers, but the decision to move Piper not only allows us to spend time in Lynchfield without Piper's uppity attitude, but also expands our view of this world. While Piper is probably the least interesting character Lynchfield, Taylor Schilling is such a great actress that when you get scenes like when she's finally able to express what she (thinks she) did to Pennsatucky, that it all seems worth it. The ambiguity of whether Pennsatucky lived or died was ruined because Taryn Manning's name is in the opening credits (therefore she was paid to be in all 13 episodes); however, because Piper herself didn't know, it made her character interesting to watch. That was necessary as we spend the entire episode with just her and away from some of the characters  we grew to love in Season 1. Speaking of which, Danielle Brooks (Taystee), Uzo Adubo (Crazy Eyes), Natasha Lyonne (Nichols), and Tayrn Manning (Pennsatucky) all get promoted into the opening credits. Unfortunately, Pablo Schrieber (Pornstache) did not, which means my worst fears have come true.

2014 Weekly TV Recap (May 18 - 24)

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Sunday May 18

Game of Thrones (HBO), Episode 7 "Mockingbird"

GRADE: B+

Brief Description: "Mockingbird" is the bridge between the excellent "The Laws of Gods and Men" (aka the Trial of Tyrion Lannister) and whatever bombshell the show decided to drop upon us soon during the Season 4 penultimate episode. So as a result, there was no reason to expect "Mockingbird" to be as great as it was. Was it as good as last week's episode? Not at all, but it doesn't have to be. While this episode mainly exists as a set up to the Trial By Combat between Oberyn Martell and The Mountain, we still get many fantastic moments like the two scenes where Jamie and Bronn visit Tyrion, the monologue why The Hound is afraid of fire, and, oh yeah, the scene where Mayor Carcetti drops Lysa out of the Moon Roof. 

Mad Men (AMC), Episode 6 "The Strategy"

GRADE: A

Brief Description: The very ending shot of "The Strategy" was just brilliant. Don and Peggy are sitting on one side of the table acting as the de facto Mother and Father while Pete Campbell sits on the other side of the table, getting sauce all over his face, acting as the de facto child. The camera then pans away from this "family" and the shot looks like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. This shot was so incredible because for all the talk about family in this episode and considering the nuclear family for each one of these characters is either failing (Don) or already dead (Pete) or non-existent (Peggy), these characters are a family. These characters are why we (or at least I) tune in every week. Peggy discusses (over drinks of course) about the idea of what exactly a family is and how it doesn't exist anymore. In 2014, we think back to this area and probably think about Leave It To Beaver. But the family that the advertising world portrays (both then and now) never truly existed. Each family is different and unique. That's what makes Mad Men so unique as well. The 1960's aren't a cliche and they certainly didn't happen the way we think it did to every single person. The counter culture certainly affected many people, but there's always been people like Don Draper who will never change as the culture does. By far and away "The Strategy" was the best episode Mad Men has done this season.

Silicon Valley (HBO), Episode 7 "Proof of Concept"
GRADE: C+

Brief Description: I have the firm belief that no matter how good a final episode is, it can't change the way I feel about the season as a whole. A great season can have a terrible finale (i.e. Season 1 of Homeland) and a terrible season can have a great finale (i.e. Season 2 of House of Cards). The last episode is irrelevant because you watch a television series as a whole, not just for one episode. It's about the journey, not the destination. With that in mind and having watched 7 of the first 8 episodes of Silicon Valley, I have decided that I will no longer be watching the show anymore. I have seen what the show is and how it works, and it's frankly not for me. I can't stand the main character and there's just not enough jokes to make me want to come back to it. I'll watch the finale of Silicon Valley, and it could be great (in fact, I hope it is), but that will be the last episode I watch.


Tuesday May 20

Fargo (FX), Episode 6 "Buridan's Ass"
GRADE: A

Brief Description: Buridan's Ass is a paradox about free will. In the paradox, a donkey is dying of both hunger and thirst. It is placed equidistant between a bundle of hey and a pale of water. Since the donkey can't rationally choose which foodstuff to go towards first, the donkey dies. While this week of Fargo doesn't even remotely make it clear how this scenario relates to the show, I'd like to think that there's just a greater force in this fictional universe that no matter what you think you can do, your fate is already decided for you and you're going to die anyway because of it. However, after thinking about it for four days, the only conclusion that I can come up with is that Molly is Buridan's Ass. She's the only character that has to choose between two needs, in her case, being a damn good cop and making sure Lester Nygaard gets brought to justice. Last week we saw Molly illegally break into Lester's place in an attempt to find the hammer Lester used to kill his wife, and I think that was the last straw. Therefore, with Molly's inability to choose between her two needs, she dies. In terms of storytelling, Molly needs to be the hero to bring both Lester and Molvo to justice. And actress Allison Tolman strongly insinuated to Grantland earlier this week that Molly lives, but I worry that my worst fear has come true, and Gus Grimly did kill Molly.

2014 TV Weekly Recap (May 11 - May 17)

MID-SEASON CATCH UP

Fargo (FX), Episode 4 "Eating The Blame"

GRADE: B+

Brief Description: Since I missed watching last week's Fargo, I'm going to move up the "Mid-Season Catch Up" section so I can discuss Fargo in chronological order. I thought "Eating The Blame" was a slight step back from the previous episode "A Muddy Road". After spending a week focusing on Malvo, Lester, and Deputy Solverson, we get an episode that focused more on some of the secondary characters like Stavros and Gus Grimly. Plus, this episode spent much of the time having characters do the opposite of what makes them great. Malvo spends most of the episode pretending to be a minister, Lester actually does something smart by outwitting the Fargo gangsters, and Molly spends much of this episode on the sidelines. "Eating The Blame" also confirms that the TV show is in the same universe as the movie as Stavros in 1987 finds the briefcase full of money left behind by Carl. I'm not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, I loved the nod to the movie, and the car driving down the long, snowy road was perfect, but at the same time, Fargo the TV show had just spent 2 episodes distinguishing itself from the movie and then goes ahead to remind you, "Hey! this is totally based upon the movie."

Arrow (CW), Episode 8 "The Scientist"
GRADE: B

Brief Description: Episode 8 of Arrow is the introduction of a character named Barry Allen. If this promo or this promo didn't give anything away, the name Barry Allen is pretty well-known in the superhero universe. We still need to "see what happens" with the S.T.A.R. Labs experiment that I imagine will happen in the next episode, but as far as an origin episode for The Flash in a series about Oliver Queen goes, it was solid. I obviously knew this was coming and I know the show will soon add another well-known name in the DC universe to the show. I don't mind this detour Arrow is taking because filling a 23-episode order can be tough to do. What I am looking forward to is the aftermath of Slade taking the magical elixir in "The Scientist" and having him transform into Deathstroke.

2014 Weekly TV Recap (May 4 - May 10)

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Sunday May 4

Game of Thrones (HBO), Episode 5 "First of His Name"

GRADE: B

Brief Description: Hands down, the three best Game of Thrones episodes have been "Baelor", "Blackwater", and "The Rains of Castamere". Those three episodes were the penultimate episodes of Seasons 1, 2, & 3 respectively. The second to last episode of every season of Game of Thrones is the explosion to what the season has built up towards. I have no doubt that the same will hold true for Season 4 of the show. But in order to build up to this big event, we need to have episodes like "First of His Name" to move chess pieces on the board. And like the middle of the past few seasons, "First of His Name" is pretty dull. The show has done a great job building up Dany, and this week it gave her an out to go fight for the Iron Throne in Westeros, but instead, she's going to go back and mull around in Essos. Last week we got a glimpse of the White Walkers threat, but they've been mulling around in the North for so long and get so little screen time, that they barely seem like a credible threat at this point in the series as well. For all the talks of the threat to the Lannister's power, that's all they have been: "talk". Now, I said the same thing at this time last year, and the season turned out quite alright, so I'm confident I'll enjoy the show by season's end. I'll power through these "pawn mover" episodes because I know it'll eventually lead to a check mate. Plus, no Tyrion and almost no Jamie this episode, so a dull episode feels even duller. 

Mad Men (AMC), Episode 4 "The Monolith"

GRADE: B

Brief Description: The title of this week's Mad Men is purposefully meant to evoke thoughts of Stanley Kubrick's classic "2001: A Space Odyssey" which every reviewer of course has to bring up in their review. The only reason I'm even bringing it up is because I think both Mad Men right now and the Kubrick film have this in common: they are genius works of art that are quite frankly boring to watch. I had the "luxury" of watching "2001" for the first time only a few years ago, so admittedly my perspective on the film is tainted. But even still, the entire movie is not enjoyable to watch, and the end just goes off the rails. Mad Men feels like it's going off the rails in its later years. Not so much for being as out there and as symbolic and dramatic as "2001" was, but I think its glory days are behind it. I have constantly critiqued this show for feeling like a high school English assignment and I think "The Monolith" is a great representation of why. There's so much symbolism and things to analyze, that it's easy to fill up an entire online review even though nothing happened on the show. Yet at the same time, watching is starting to feel like homework. I think a lot of why I liked "Field Trip" so much was because it reminded me of the days where Mad Men would actually *do* something while also having characters we love to hate. As much as I hate Betty Draper and the old, weasely Pete Campbell, I needed them to balance out the show. Since Season 5 of the show, nothing really has happened, which just makes the show dull with the appearance of bright lights.

Silicon Valley (HBO), Episode 5 "Signaling Risk"

GRADE: A

Brief Description: It's no coincidence that the best episode of Silicon Valley's rookie season is the episode where you see the least amount of the show's main character Richard. Plus, what little you see of Richard, you at least see him being authoritative and taking charge. There's humor in T.J. Miller's Erlich and others bossing Richard around, but it's mostly annoying. Instead, what "Signaling Risk" does is create a low risk story line that not only allows its characters to just be funny, it also advances the plot. The A story line of this episode is Erlich paying a local graffiti artist (who initially wants to be paid in stock options) to create a logo for Pied Piper, while the B story line is of Peter Gregory demanding Richard and his company to present at the TechCrunch Disrupt. I imagine the season finale will be Pied Piper's presentation at the conference, and hopefully we'll get a better sense of just how rewarding it will be of Richard to start his own company. But until then, we'll get little funny moments like Gilfoyle and Dinesh arguing with each other, which is really what makes this show. Kumail Nanjiani's face at the end of the episode when he couldn't go outside to see the logo because he was in competition with Gulfoyle was laugh out loud amazing.

Lastly, on a more somber note, "Signaling Risk" will be the last episode in which we'll see Christopher Evan Welch's Peter Gregory because the actor died while in production. While Peter didn't have a lot to do in this episode, his awkward conversation with Gavin Belson was fantastic. I also imagine Welch's death will bring the show's only female star, Amanda Crew's Monica, more into prominence- which will be a refreshing change of pace.