Chuck - Chuck Versus the Anniversary, 4.01

I'm so glad I got to even write that title, with "4.01" at the end there. Thank you, TV gods, for a fourth season of this wonderful show.

Awesome Things About Chuck Vs. The Anniversary (Because it's easier and more fun to just gush about this show than to try and write anything analytical about it)

• Linda Hamilton.
• Beckman as manager of the Buy More (who's Ass Man now?), and the CIA rebuilding the Buy More as an official front. Perfect.
• Dolph Lundgren.
• Trapdoor slide from the Buy More to Castle.
• Casey misses Chuck.
• SEXTING. "U LIKE?" "I thought it was cute."
• "DAMN YOU! I love dumplings." -Repo man
• "We are an offshoot of the Ring... the New Ring." -Agent Carmichael. Suave.
• I LOVE Sarah/Casey interaction so much. And there was tons of it this episode.
• Hooray also to Sarah getting her personality back after the Shaw-heavy episodes put a damper on it last season.
• "This is Charles Carmichael. I am Michael Carmichael."
• Sexting as plot device. This is glorious.
• Gunfight IN THE DARK.

The IT Crowd

No one in The IT Crowd is based in the reality we know. There aren't any straight men characters or honest, grounded moments (even when it appears there might be -- like when Roy acts cavalier to Jen in series 1... then slams the cab door on her face). In this way, the show is similar to It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia rather than other workplaces sitcoms like The Office (either version -- character development, clearly reality-based, just with outlandish characters in Brent/Scott and Gareth/Dwight) or Better Off Ted (Veronica, Phil, and Lem cartoons, but Ted's not). Even It's Always Sunny has had a couple moments, that I can recall, that were sincere: in Mac's Banging the Waitress, when Charlie sheds a tear as the Waitress screams at him (cut to credits, and it's still hilarious, so I'm not sure it counts 100%) and in The Nightman Cometh, when Frank says to Charlie at the end of the play, "You did a great job. She ain't worth it."

What am I getting at. I'm not going to say I don't like comedies that aren't emotional, because that's not true. I will admit I prefer them with heart, though. The friendship of the Community study gang keeps me coming back, even if the jokes aren't there that week. Likewise for Parks and Rec and Modern Family. (It used to be the case for The Office, too, but now all the characters are so unlikeable* AND it's unfunny, it's often hard to watch.)

The IT Crowd episodes are a harmless 20 minutes each and they're easy to watch. They're more often funny than not. Moss, Roy, and Jen aren't the Sunny gang, and I'd argue they're weaker characters in general. Jen is a simple stereotype (I've heard the show been called sexist, and I can see why), Roy is awkward because he's a nerd in IT, and Moss is the same albeit stranger and even more socially maladjusted. It's funny to a point, but I feel that after a couple of seasons, there's only so much you can do with stereotyped, bland chess pieces to move about the board. (Likening The IT Crowd to chess is generous.)

* With the exception of Erin. Pam and Jim used to be the relatable ones. Now, it's Erin, whose room used to be her hair...

The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse

Meta at its absolute finest. These guys are so good.

I'll miss this show a lot. Fortunately, it is very re-watchable.


"Don't kill Mark Gatiss." -Geoff

Lone Star - Pilot, 1.01

I flew Virgin America to Boston a few days ago, and they had the Lone Star pilot available to view before it airs Sept 20 on FOX. I figured it couldn't hurt to check out this show because it has Jon Voigt in it (which makes it vaguely credible, right?) and I had ample time. I'm going to watch as many fall pilots as I can (I'm excited for Terriers tonight, and Undercovers and Running Wilde in a couple weeks) to test them out, but I expect to drop 90% of them after the first couple episodes.

Lone Star features a charming Kyle Chandler look-alike as lead. He's a con man like his controlling father. He leads two lives though his father advises him against getting attached to anything. Protag considers his double (triple?) life, daddy issues, and women he loves, and decides to come clean by legitimately making back the money he's conned. The pilot offers a nice set-up to a surely dramatic season, as now former con man protagonist attempts to go straight in business, but juggle two relationships at once. Cute. Safe. If I didn't know this was a FOX show, I would've guessed USA.

I've been watching too much Friday Night Lights recently (Adrienne Palicki is in both shows, fun fact), and Lone Star pales in comparison where ambience is concerned. I believe I'm in Texas when I watch FNL. When I watched the Lone Star pilot, at first I thought I was in a Los Angeles suburb. Use more establishing shots, please. But I guess not all Texas-based shows can be absolutely fantastic!

Thoughts about the music choices:

• Rogue Wave – Eyes. Used over a lovey bedroom scene; protagonist loves his Texan wife. It was also used in Heroes twice. Nostalgic and romantic, in an indie way.
• Mumford & Sons – The Cave. Used over protag con man montage; they don't just TELL you he's a con man, look, they SHOW you too! It's empty in the valley of your heart. Aw, he's not heartless, he just does slimy business, see. But most importantly, it's twangy and hence must be southern and Texan and stuff, right? One good thing I'll say -- the song's momentum feels like it's going somewhere; it really propels the montage.
• Music choices saying, "We’re current and youthful." A lot of Mumford & Sons. Even though they're Londoners. But it's okay, they play banjos that are twangy.
• Mumford & Sons – Little Lion Man. Over more con man business. I really fucked it up this time, didn't I my dear?
• Cold War Kids - Hang Me Up To Dry. Used when he returns to his blonde. I'm not positive it was the CWK version, it may have been a twangier cover.
• Some Elliot Smith-like music. Some Bon Iver-like music. Couldn't identify either.
• Mumford & Sons – Awake My Soul. Tyra confronts protag with serious business.

C-. Try harder. I get that not all Texas shows can be scored by Explosions in the Sky, but don't be so basic please. I'm feeling kind of bitchy tonight.

Friday Night Lights - Git 'Er Done, 1.05

I cannot even deal with how good Friday Night Lights is. I've only seen five episodes. Sports dramas make me incredibly emotional. It's an absolutely perfect show. Perfect, as in no flaws. Impeccable.

Take episode five, Git 'Er Done, which I just finished watching. It flowed seamlessly -- from Jason's quiet recuperation scenes, to Tyra's Los Angeles fling, to Mr. and Mrs. Coach's conversations... with a perfect lead-up to Friday night: a scene in which Lila visits Jason in the hospital right before the game, and is followed in by Coach Taylor and the rest of the team. A quiet prelude before the big game. FNL does quiet very, very well. It's harder to do quiet and familiar than loud and boisterous, in my opinion... the late afternoon scene with Coach Taylor and his wife, for instance; he talks to her, articulating the sides of his dilemma, and it's incredibly real and intimate. The lighting is only what comes in through the school office windows, so there is lens flare and dust and coarse shadow across faces; the couple interrupts each other, and it's so loving, and you really get the feeling they are perfect for each other, because the understanding between them is palpable, the chemistry so strong, that you're left with the impression that maybe you shouldn't even be watching these real people have this quiet yet important moment.

Woah, kinda got carried away there.

Anyway, I also wanted to mention Tyra's brief affair with Connor, the businessman from Los Angeles. Their scenes this episode seemed like interludes to the rest of the episode, which was dedicated to preparation for Friday night. She's not a principal character (yet?) and her scenes hardly acknowledged football. The show so far had portrayed her as the football jock's bitchy girlfriend, but this episode showed a different side of her and hence propelled her characterization and likability lightyears ahead of, say, Lila. I'm a hopeless romantic, so I loved this micro-love story: small-town girl fed up with small town meets guy from big city. It's been done, but the fact that it was done with Tyra's character -- and so sweetly, too -- is intriguing. He leaves at the end of the episode, but you can't help but ache with her because she connected with him more than she ever could with her ex-boyfriend Tim, or anyone in Dillon for that matter. Connor thought her cynicism was interesting and he obviously fancied her, but you also know he had his own life in LA. He leaves, and Tyra is in a strange place -- she is unsatisfied with her town and her dead-end life, the only person that could have understood that is gone, so where does she go from there?

Kind of got carried away there, too.

Finally, these are really, really fine actors across the board. Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler were Emmy nom'd this year, and rightfully so. Minka Kelly is annoyingly cloying most of the time, but I suppose that's her character. Everyone else supporting is just grand and completely believable.

I'm SO glad I have 70+ episodes left to watch! I don't want this show to ever end!

ETA: The writing on this show is solid, but what really makes it stellar is the acting and directing. With a weaker cast and a less stylized shooting style, this show could have easily bombed.

Friday Night Lights - Wind Sprints, 1.03

Explosions in the Sky over football players sloshing through knee-deep mud in the rain. It should be disgusting, but instead it's triumphant.

Dead Like Me - The Ledger, 2.02

Dead Like Me could have done so much. An incredible, attractive, bunch of actors, including Mandy Patinkin and Callum Blue, played with quick, witty dialogue. A quirky, Pie Hole-esque diner specializing in waffles served as their meeting ground. The premise was fascinating -- newly dead girl adjusts to being undead, finds herself employed as a grim reaper. Joins a motley bunch of reapers, each with their own story, while at home, her family copes in their own ways with her death. It explored of the nature of death itself, how the living deal with death, and most interestingly, the specific schematics of what Dead-Like-Me-death really is. Fantastic creatures known as Gravelings, only visible out of the corner of your eye, roam about killing people -- but why some people over others? George Lass was only eighteen when she was killed by a falling toilet seat meteor, but Why her?

Unfortunately, this question spanned far too many episodes. While it would be natural for her character to question Why at first, I feel this should have been, in turn, one of the first issues dealt with so that other stories could be explored. Or, it could have been pushed to the side, resurfacing with an emotional eruption or breakdown. Either way, it shouldn't have been a red button issue into the second season. "The Ledger" begins with George bursting into Rube's apartment and demanding to know Why she had to die, and it feels incredibly tired.

The last half of the first season, in fact, feels too long and repetitive. The reapers receive their post-it death assignments in the beginning of the episode, reap their stuff, question death a bit, and the episode ends with a George voiceover. In the middle somewhere there are a couple of boring scenes that feature George's mother and sister, being generally boring and argumentative. The story never goes anywhere.

What the show should have done was to continue questioning, through George's newly dead inquisitive eyes, the Why behind the post-its and Gravelings and rules of death from an unknown source. Less commentary about dead things and more exploration of what was surely a darkly fantastical dichotomy behind the scenes. The first season begins this way, with George even trying to cheat the system by not reaping, but she soon becomes uncharacteristically complacent with her situation and mindlessly reaps souls like the rest of her Waffle House cohorts. Overall, there is too much sitting around eating waffles not doing anything. Where are the dramatic showcases for each of the actors when they finally open up about their lives and subsequent deaths and subsequent after-death ennui? Dead Like Me should have been bigger, should have aimed higher. Instead, it was stuck in a diner.

The most fascinating part of the series so far was when Betty, a reaper, follows one of the souls she reaps into their afterlife. Rube warned George to never do this, to never break the rules. The episode ends with a satisfying, heart-pounding moment as Rube sticks a post-it on his door, a note for the higher-ups: "Where did she go?"

What happens when you break the rules? What are the rules in death, and who makes them? What are Gravelings? Where did Betty go?

Alas, all these questions are dropped after this episode, all consequences forgotten. Betty's departure took place in the fifth episode of the first season ("Reaping Havoc") which, incidentally, is the last episode Bryan Fuller was associated with. Had he been in charge the rest of the way, the rest of the season would have doubtless been propelled by these questions.

Things Dead Like Me should have done:

• Less Happy Time, less Waffle House.
• More in-the-field reaping, more creative wacky death situations.
• Spotlight episodes for Mason, Rube, Roxy, Daisy. Looking at their past lives and therefore motivations and current state of mind. Opening up to George, showing how broken they are about death and how they learned to cope, for better or for worse.
• A-Team, caper-style episodes in which the gang teams up to find out who's giving the orders, preferably with the leadership of George who is the least jaded.
• Give George's family something interesting to do, or omit them entirely.
• Character development. Any character development.
• Reapers bonding with their reaping targets before and after death. Learning lessons, moral-of-the-story, episode theme type of thing.
• A musical episode (they said they wanted to do one!) or some sort of deviation in the typical episode structure.