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| By Arnold Gatilao from Fremont, CA, USA (Jennifer Morrison) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
Nick is gone! Thanks for the Christmas present, CBS. That character was a dud and so was the plotline. We're curious to know how Kalinda got rid of him. We doubt she killed him, but with a storyline that dumb, one never knows. We don't even care what happened to him. In fact, one way for Kalinda to get her mystery back is to have the show just never tell us what she did to protect Alicia. He's gone. No one cares about him. Showing her killing him would be stupid, but anything less than his death would be unsatisfactory (unless the writers have a creative solution of which we can't conceive). Just leave it at that. Kalinda has ways we don't know about. Ways we can't fathom. Stand in awe. Our main complaint about this episode was the lack of Cary. Alicia needs a new love interest at some point too. For a midseason finale, this one was awfully quiet.
What an interesting case to save for the end though. This is one legal show that puts real, intelligent thought into its scenarios. Amanda Peet has Will nailed. Not literally, but it's probably just a matter of time. We can't believe Alicia's kids were so mean to her when she tried to have The Talk with them. Actually, we can. Our parents are cool cucumbers, like Alicia, who we respect, and we even snap at them sometimes. No one wants parents up in their grill, even after high school. Alicia messed up though. Now Grace is probably going to have sex with Bobby. Did Alicia send Grace the message that it's a little expected for Grace to start considering sex? It was cute and hilarious when Zach and Alicia found out that the real sex maniac was Jackie. Peter's campaign is in trouble and Eli is in a tissy. What else is new?
Episode grade: B
Once Upon a Time- Queen of Hearts
As saccharine as it all was, this episode touched us, especially when Emma's heart threw out Cora. Will Emma have more powers in the future? Jennifer Morrison looked prettier than usual in this episode, for whatever reason. Regina didn't get the results she would have wanted from her redemption, but we love seeing her come this far. One of our concerns with this series was that the good and bad guys would be fixed, uncomplicated, and stock characters. But this show isn't afraid to take them from their archetypes and grow them, making room for surprises like Red being the wolf or the "evil queen" being unselfish. We loved the ending too.
Hook is such a little poop. His aggressive "flirting" during his fight with Emma was just disgusting. Who is writing his part? If they are trying to get us to hate him, it's working. As sweet and fulfilling as this episode was, the best part was Hook and Cora sailing toward Storybrooke. As villains, they probably aren't scary enough, but we can't wait to see them face off against Rumpy and Regina. We'll give them a chance to prove that they can cause real trouble. We like that the midseason finale got the whole Charming family back together. A separation storyline isn't as interesting as an all-out war storyline, especially when we are repeatedly assured that they will always find each other.
Episode grade: A-
Revenge- Revelations
This wasn't a bad way to wrap up the first half of the season. It wasn't good, but neither was most of this season so far. The events were a little depressing. Daniel has control of Nolan's company, because Nolan wanted to protect Amanda that much. Wow, that's a great friend. Too great of a friend. David Clarke must have been one hell of a mentor. We hope Ashley wasn't anybody's favorite character (we truly doubt it) because she probably isn't anymore. Her actions in this episode were pathetic, but we can all likely agree that we're glad she and Daniel are broken up. We welcome a triangle between Daniel and Aiden. Jack is just too sweet and clueless to make an intriguing triangle point and be competitive enough to make a fight for Amanda exciting.
It seemed like the Jack/Amanda ship was endgame from the first season, but now that he has a baby with Emily, he seems sort of tainted as a love interest. Plus, he has Declan and gave rise to this season's most boring material, in our opinions: the drama with his dead father's enemies. We had hoped this episode would end that arc for good, but it seems we'll have to contend with it next year. Much more exciting is the idea of the Initiative, the terrorist group that started it all, trying to control Daniel. Daniel isn't as pure as the driven snow as he used to be, but he's not evil, he's smart, and he has good intentions. Heck, the guy is a literal poet. He's going to be horrified when these people start contacting him.
Episode grade: B
The Walking Dead- Made to Suffer
Darryl!!!!! Oh no! We saw the preview for February and he was still running around, so supposedly he lives, but we still don't like to even see or think about the risk of losing our favorite redneck of all time. We have five new characters in the prison, and we're alright with that. With all the people dying, they need to be replaced. We want the show to keep trying out characters and only keep the ones we like (and occasionally kill one of them as well). AMC needs to learn how to write women we like. Maggie is a start. We actually don't hate Andrea, even though a lot of people do since she started sleeping with the Governor, a choice some deem as "gross." Carl is a pretty good little leader, as shown by this episode. At first, we didn't buy him as a bad ass, but he's growing on us.
The battle was okay, but the real action was the fight between Michonne and the Governor. Thank God Michonne put his poor daughter out of her misery. That was a gnarly fight. As disgusting and sociopathic of a person the Governor is, one of us is kind of attracted to him. If he had raped Maggie, that attraction would be completely gone. But he didn't, so there it is. We wondered why the Governor turned on Merle so fast, but then we remembered that Merle lied to him about Michonne being dead, and the Governor probably doesn't want to deal with Merle's whinging about his brother. RIP Oscar. You won't be missed that much. Can't wait until February. We just want an answer as to what the Governor is doing with all those heads. EXPLAIN THE HEADS.
Episode grade: B+
I thought Revenge was good. I too am happy that Ashley was finally outed. I think they could do a lot with her character. I'd like to know more about her backstory. I was kinda bummed that Nolen lost control of his business, but I don't think it's gonna be that way for long. He's way too smart. Revenge isn't as good as it was last year, but it's pretty normal for shows to have a "sophmore slump."
ReplyDeleteIt really is normal. The bad news is that most shows don't come back from the sophomore slump
DeleteIn TWD comics, the head collection is never explained .... hopefully it is in the show - I suspect it is to prove how he has been losing his sanity during the plague. So the Governor has his head collection and Rick sees and hears dead people - both are a little crazy town.
ReplyDeleteI am reading a Rise of the Govenor written by Robert Kirkman, if there is any heads-up (LOL) about the collection I will let you all know ASAP.
Snoz
Thanks! We love that you read the comics and comment here, because we want the info and clarifications, but we also don't want to read the comics/don't want to spoil the plot of the show for ourselves.
DeleteOk guys, I have just finished reading Rise of the Govenor and unfortunately there is no immediate reference to why he collects heads, however there is a tragedy that causes him to sit in a trance staring at a grimey fish tank, including dead fish for 36 hours.
DeleteLike TWD tv show there are few happy moments, and even knowing what will happen to Penny, it is still heart-breaking when this occurs.
There is a twist in this book that I did not see coming at all. Completely threw me for a six (sorry for the cricket reference, I'm Australian). I really hope this twist and the background of the govenor is shown as flashbacks maybe in the second half of season 3 or maybe season 4. These flashbacks will be much better than Sam's Superanatural flashbacks guaranteed!
Snoz
The twist sounds great. I'll bet they'll do it. That explains the heads more than nothing
DeleteDid yall change the grade for Once Upon a Time? I thought it got a B+ the first time you guys posted? (Not important..but making sure. lol)
ReplyDeleteNope, haha :-) Sometimes that happens though. If one of us thinks the grade was too high or low, we'll sneakily change it. It's a source of almost no discord between us, meriting, say, an eye roll, tops.
Deletetvd??
ReplyDeletewill you recap the vampire diaries??
ReplyDeleteWe've changed the way we blog and are still working out some of the kinks. We both have jobs now, so we can't always write the day after episodes air, especially since we watch so many shows. Unfortunately, we won't be recapping anymore, but we'll comment on key episodes, and we'll explain something if we think it's confusing, like we did the last time we discussed Homeland. We'll also comment on whole seasons we've binged, movies, books, and music. We'll blog about an episode when we feel like we have something worth saying about it, or if we have a strong positive or negative reaction to what a show is doing.
DeleteWe're going to let a few episodes build up before we talk about what's going on with a show and how we are liking the arcs. To answer your question (finally), we'll be talking about last week's TVD and this week's on either Thursday night or Friday morning. Most likely Friday morning.