Happy Graduation Cupcake!
Dear Kathryn,
While I’m excited for The Originals, this episode actually gave me a craving for a different spinoff – something like, The Other Side, maybe? I mean, Lexi, Alaric, Kole, the witches – these guys made the show fun again! I was, in fact, much more bummed than their best friends seemed to be when each one slipped away. At least Bonnie got some sort of a farewell – but of course, our biggest concerns with her (i.e., that her power would kill her rather than empower her) came true in an pretty amplified way. Not only did she die as punishment for her strength, but she got a kind of double, definitive death, giving up her life to save the guy. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to have Jeremy back. He’s actually become a surprisingly mature voice of reason on the show! But in an episode heavy-handedly exploring the theme of selfishness and self-sacrifice, it’s exhausting to me that the ultimate sacrifice is paid by the only strong black woman on the show in order to save the life of a white man. Read the rest of this entry »
Take me with you
The Mindy Project wrapped up its first season, as Mindy decided to join Casey on the year long mission trip to Haiti – seemingly solidifying their relationship, but leaving her professional life hanging in the balance. This has been an up and down season with some bright spots, but just not enough character development of laugh-out-loud moments to really satisfy. Given the cast and writers, I came into this show expecting a comedy series with a few meaningful story lines thrown in to make the viewer think every once in a while. On occasion the show did actually address some interesting topics and issues, Read the rest of this entry »
I Need You. And Nothing Else Will Do.
Dear Kathryn,
Sylvia was definitely the star of this episode for me (and how am I only just realizing now that she’s Lindsey from Freaks and Geeks? This was a bit of a rude awakening to the fact that I’m about the same age as many of these characters…even those I think of as “older”!). But I digress. At the end of the episode, Sylvia ends the affair because she feels ashamed – what isn’t made clear is precisely what has shamed her. Is it the adultery itself (what is, perhaps, implied), or the power-play sex-game maneuvering through which Don has put her? The danger up to this point is that the two would fall in love with each other – but this episode reveals that love was never really on the table. The minute Don hears those words – not only that he is needed, but that he is a unique form of need; he is singular – something clicks inside him. The transition from the ad-room conversations about Napoleon inventing margarine were the perfect pre-cursor to the shot of Don, seated on the hotel room throne, asking for Sylvia to bow before him. Weren’t you reminded of so many imperial portraits of Napoleon in that moment? And so the power of his own uniqueness went to Don’s head, and in an effort to live much too fully into that power, he invented a fantasy scenario that was – as the ad-team puts it with reference to Napoleon’s margarine Read the rest of this entry »
So This is Either Really Good, or Really Bad…
Dear Kathryn,
With only one episode left to go, Vampire Diaries definitely recaptured my interest! I’ll say more in a moment about why Bonnie’s death sucks…but first, why it’s awesome. Bringing down the veil in such a limited way (really, only supernaturals who have an interest in being inside a small section of Mystic Falls are bothering to cross over…and, well, Mystic Falls isn’t the most exciting place!) doesn’t seem all that bad. By not completing the spell, it seems like we have the best of both worlds (pardon the pun). Every supernatural who would have made my tv viewing overly chaotic is held at bay, and those who make the show better have reappeared. Yeeyy Alaric! And woot, woot army of scary vampire hunters! Read the rest of this entry »
Obligatory paintball
So as we come to the end of another season of Community (perhaps its last, perhaps not), I don’t think I could have ever believed that my reaction would be one of indifference. At the beginning of the season, I was prepared to hate Community 2.0 (and some of it I did), but I also harbored a secret hope that I might love it (some of which I did), but increasingly, I’ve found myself waiting days to catch the show on Hulu – out of equal parts duty, guilt, and lingering hope. And that’s kind of my reaction to Advanced Introduction to Finality. All season, Community has been the show that does gimmick and homage episodes because that’s what it’s supposed to do (obligatory paintball!), and what its fanbase is supposed to love; and it’s become the show that revolves around the study group as a family with something dangerously close to an unearned sentimentality, lacking the emotional substructure previous seasons have had. And that’s precisely what we got tonight, I thought.
Too old for this
I thought this was a stronger episode than in recent weeks. As usually is the case with this show, the laughs came from random moments of good writing and/or good comedic delivery rather than from funny plotlines. For example, Mindy’s shower scene exclamation Read the rest of this entry »
Mutually Assured Destruction
Dear Kathryn,
I’ll admit, I’ve been a bit ho hum about this season so far – but this episode pulled me back in! Let’s start with the biggest news of all – the merger. I was anticipating SCDP and CGC going in together on the Chevy account, but I’m somewhat dumbfounded by the idea that Don and Ted can actually merge their entire companies – furniture and everything – without at least having a wee chat with their partners first. I guess I expect this of Don – and, to be fair, Joan’s really quite beautiful speech about how everyone supports him while waiting for him to do what is in all their best interests indicated that in the end, Don really does lead the company in all its major shifts and changes. It’s also the case that 3 partners (Pete, Joan and Bert) were preparing to take the company public without consulting Don and Roger. So I guess we have a whole bunch of wildcards at SCDP with different visions for their shared project that they forget to share with each other! But Ted – Ted just seems too much of a nice guy to make such a big step without Gleason and (???). Seeing him take on a little more of the Draper way made him exciting and almost (almost!) sexy… Read the rest of this entry »
