Grey's Anatomy: Catastrophe and the Cure (13x02)

I'm really liking this season so far. But I miss Arizona. Are we going to see her soon? My efforts to be brief might be thwarted today, but I'm going to try...

Cons:

Maggie and Meredith. I'm sorry, I just... I don't care about the love triangle, and I'm kind of mad at Meredith for not coming clean to Maggie. But then I'm also annoyed at Maggie for being so whiny and self-centered, talking about Riggs all the time. Maggie does get the courage to ask Riggs out, but he had pre-warning from Meredith and immediately says no, trying to let her down easy by saying that he's not ready to date anybody right now. Meredith tells Alex that she slept with Riggs, and Alex looks on with amusement as Maggie shows up, ready to drink away her sorrows at getting rejected. This keeps getting more complicated, and while I know that this kind of plot line is typical fare for a show like Grey's Anatomy, I think it's just bothering me because it seems so petty compared to everything else that's going on.

Modern Family: A Stereotypical Day (8x02)

Okay. A stronger episode than the premiere, but there were still elements that I wasn't thrilled with.

Cons:

The Dunphy plot involved Phil getting stuck in a closet after an open house for work, and then suffering from PTSD about it. This could have been really funny, but they didn't spend enough time on the part where he was actually in the closet. There was a lot they could have done with that and I feel like the opportunity was wasted. Also in the Dunphy plot, we learn that Alex has mono and has to stay home from school. This is fine, since they've done nothing with her college plot line anyway, but I do wish that this show could decide what to do with Alex. Haley lost her job and is hiding it form the family, which isn't really funny. It mostly just seems like an unraveling of her character development. I don't know... there was a real attempt in some of the other plot threads to explore some more serious themes. The stuff with the Dunphys fell flat in comparison. Especially since PTSD isn't funny.

There were a few cringe-y jokes in an episode riddled with contentious land mines. They avoided most of them, which I'll talk about more in a minute. But Jay misunderstanding the phrase "by the way" as an exotic African name? Ugh. I call foul.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Meet the New Boss (4x02)

Things are heating up (no pun intended) in this season, and I'm loving it. So many interesting developments to talk about! I'll try and keep it brief.

Cons:

Unfortunately, the least successful part of this episode was one of the potentially more compelling mysteries: the weird ghosts. Basically, the "ghost" at the very beginning of the episode was very successful indeed, appearing in a family's home and attacking a man. Later, when we see things from this ghost's point of view, things start to fall apart. She wakes up other ghosts being held in containment fields and they all talk about finding a book and killing the man responsible for their current conditions. Lucy, the main ghost, thinks that she can reverse whatever it is that's happened to them. Fitz and Mack, investigating the lab where these ghosts were held, get into an altercation with one of them. I'll talk in a minute about the many good things that came out of this plot thread, but I think the actual effectiveness of the incorporeal beings was really undercut the second you started having them talk to each other. Ghosts and things like that are always scarier when you view them as an outsider, unable to gain access to their thoughts. This is a case of "less is more." I didn't want things spelled out for me quite so clearly.

The Big Bang Theory: The Military Miniaturization (10x02)

I actually found this episode to be leaps and bounds better than the first episode of the season. However, given that this is The Big Bang Theory, my expectations are always super low.

Cons:

As is often the case with this show, I felt that in some cases they didn't go quite far enough. There are two principal plots here, one with the girls and one with the guys. In Penny and Bernadette's plot, some actual tension broke out, and Bernadette was seemingly facing discrimination in the work place. However, instead of capitalizing on this, the whole thing was brushed aside too quickly. This could have been a chance for the show to actually take a stance!

Similarly, the boys meet with Colonel Williams this week about their invention. They seem to be nervous about its military applications, but the Colonel shuts them down. The rest of the plot thread ends up being about Sheldon's big mouth, and how they have to work super quickly to make their design much smaller. Not a bad concept, but not as interesting as wrestling with the moral implications of using science to help people kill each other more efficiently.

Once Upon a Time: The Savior (6x01)

Is it just me, or are we retreading familiar ground here? It's too early to say for certain, but there's a part of me that's mighty concerned about what I just watched. Let's get started.

Cons:

Basically, my main complaint here is that many of the characters seem to be reverting.

Emma starts getting tremors in her hands, and strange flashes of a mysterious battle. Hyde seems to know something about it, and Emma visits him in jail where she and the other heroes have captured him. She then follows a red bird, per Hyde's suggestion, to a woman in the woods who calls herself an oracle, who tells her that her visions are of her own future. She sees herself fighting a cloaked figure, and being stabbed and killed. Honestly there were things to like about this, but Emma hiding stuff from Hook and her family is so old hat. I'm tired of hearing about how Emma's walls are up and then she lets them down because of her family and Hook, and then she puts the walls back up again when something unexpected happens. It's tiresome.

Grey's Anatomy: Undo (13x01)

Things are picking up right where we left off in last season's finale, which is kind of cool. Lots of drama, most of it pretty interesting. Let's jump in. This show is the hardest one to talk about succinctly...

Cons:

The Meredith/Riggs/Maggie love triangle isn't grabbing me. I was ready to give it a chance last season, but this week it fell flat. It's just that there are a lot of more important things going on, so listening to Maggie whine about Riggs vs. DeLuca when other people's lives are being ruined... well, let's just say that I love Maggie a lot, but I wasn't thrilled with her this week. I especially thought it was annoying that she kept talking about her past with DeLuca while he was in the operating room potentially about to lose the use of his eye. I mean, get a grip Maggie. This is so not about you.

And Riggs went around being the nice guy, checking in on Meredith every step of the way. This little thread felt like a distraction from everything else that was going on. I don't need to know about Meredith's confusing relationships right now. I need to know about Alex. Meredith herself seemed a bit fed up with Riggs popping in to ask her how she was all the time.

Modern Family: A Tale of Three Cities (8x01)

To be perfectly frank, I was a little underwhelmed with this premiere. Last season was a low point for Modern Family, and I was hoping to feel a revitalized energy in this season's premiere. Instead, I got an episode that was just... meh.

Cons:

Two of the three plots failed to capitalize on some really funny setups. Cam and Mitchell are in the mid-west with Cam's family, holding a vigil around Cam's dying grandmother. When Mitchell is alone with her in the room, she seems to wake up for a minute and grab Mitchell's hair. This leads to the family walking in as Mitchell is saying "let go." The old woman dies, and Cam's family blames Mitchell. Mitchell goes home and is upset, until he realizes that he too tends to side with his family against Cam sometimes. This plot thread could have been so much funnier. I wanted the grandma to wake up and talk to Mitchell, or something. And we could have done a lot more with Cam's hilarious family, and how they all reacted to Mitchell's supposedly treacherous words to the dying grandmother. The "moral of the story" bit, wherein we learn that sometimes you side with your family over your spouse, also fell pretty flat. In the end, the grandmother left Lily a racist present in her will, and Mitchell "the sissy" got grandma's old lipsticks. If this was meant to be funny, it didn't work.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Ghost (4x01)

It's back! And it's darker and more intense than ever. Before we dive in, a PSA: I'm starting night classes which means my free time is decreasing. A lot. So expect these reviews to be rather pithier than usual for a while. Thanks!

Cons:

This episode may have been a little crowded, what with catching us up on everybody. There are a lot of different plot threads to capture. We've got this mysterious new director, the splintering of our team, Radcliffe's AI, Daisy's illicit activities, the introduction of Ghost Rider, and more. It's simply a bit difficult to give each of these plot threads time to breathe. I felt like the most underutilized character here was Yo-Yo. We see that she has signed the Sokovia Accords and is following the rules, but slipping information to Daisy on the sly. I wanted a bit more time to understand her divided loyalties, but unfortunately that was sacrificed for other things.

The Big Bang Theory: The Conjugal Conjecture (10x01)

Oh boy. It's back. Honestly this show is kind of a social experiment for me. I don't actually enjoy it, but it fascinates me. Specifically, the fact that it's so popular even after so many years of mediocre content. Let's jump in to the Season Ten premiere!

Cons:

The biggest complaint I have is that this episode was actually trying to do too much. That's not my usual complaint about a show that tends to play it safe. But here we had too many guest stars, and not enough focus on any one element. The plot threads are numerous: Howard is still nervous about being contacted by the government about his invention, Sheldon and Leonard are horrified at the prospect of their parents hooking up, Penny's family is in town and they are worried about being judged, and then finally there's the "big event" - Penny and Leonard tie the knot. Again.

I actually found some details of this quite funny. Penny's family was a delight, for example. But everything was mixed up in such a haphazard way that I felt like very few of the elements here had proper time to breathe. Particularly egregious was the treatment of the subplot with Howard and Raj. I actually want some answers as to what the government wants with Howard's invention, but we got basically nothing here. Howard has a meeting with a member of the air force, but we have to wait to find out the contents of that meeting.

Suits: P.S.L. (6x10)

After an entire summer centered around Mike being in prison, this week Mr. Ross takes a back seat. I actually found it rather refreshing!

Cons:

Okay, to nobody's surprise, I'm going to complain about Louis and Tara. Guess what? She's pregnant with her ex-boyfriend's baby. Louis insists that he wants to be with Tara and raise the child, but Tara thinks that they both need more time to think it over. In the end, Louis shows up and proposes to Tara, and she says yes. Okay... so I'm going to talk in a bit about how the final few minutes of this episode were gorgeous and awesome for a lot of reasons. But I still can't get over the fact that Louis and Tara just met, and Louis is still so annoying, and I don't get how either one of them could possibly think this is a good idea. I miss Sheila. I guess I just feel like there were a lot of ways to build out Louis' character and try to set up a good romance. I just didn't buy the way they ended up doing it.

Stu is leaving?! Okay, I'm of two minds about this. I actually liked the scenes with Stu and Donna, and then Stu and Louis. Turns out, Stu and his company have the opportunity for some free real estate because Sutter's company owed them money. They can't turn their backs on that, but it means backing out of their lease and leaving Louis, and PSL, in a rut. While there's nothing wrong in theory about this little plot thread, it does make me wonder... why waste a character like Stu? Why remove him from the story when things were just starting to get interesting with him? It reminds me of the show's treatment of Julius, Mike's prison counselor. So much potential, and then pretty much no follow-through. It's a bummer!

Suits: The Hand That Feeds You (6x09)

Only one more episode before the hiatus comes and significantly dampens my eagerness for Wednesdays. I'm happy, as always, with many developments in this episode. But I wouldn't be me if I didn't have some complaints.

Cons:

Surprise, surprise... I'm still not feeling the Tara and Louis thing. Donna acts as the relationship counselor here, as she tells Louis to stay calm and not jump to conclusions about what Tara is up to with Joshua, her boyfriend. Tara tells Louis that Joshua proposed to her, and she told him that she couldn't marry him when she has such strong feelings for another man, which leaves Louis and Tara together. Ugh. I mean I don't think I even need to really get in to what I don't like about this, right? It's the same crap I've been saying since Tara was introduced. It would be so much more interesting to see Louis growing and developing as a character through the plot device of an unconventional relationship. But nope! Apparently Louis is irresistible to a smart, beautiful accomplished woman like Tara for some reason... and now she's throwing away a three year long relationship for him because their love is so strong or whatever. The whole thing annoys the hell out of me. And Donna gets sidelined again which sucks.

Mike and Rachel have a quick phone call in this episode, where Rachel talks to Mike about her death row client. She wants Mike to tell her what it's like to be in prison. Now, this phone call isn't a bad moment or anything, but it just highlighted one of the biggest weaknesses of this season for me: we actually haven't seen what prison is like for Mike, and the scene cuts away from Mike and Rachel's conversation before we can get any real insight. I wish the show would push harder on this issue instead of shoving it under the rug. Also, the brevity of this phone call just highlights again how little screen time Mike and Rachel have been getting. Can she not go visit him in prison yet?

Suits: Borrowed Time (6x08)

Very solid episode, with some real forward motion. I'm very happy about most things, but there were a few things I was not so happy about as well.

Cons:

Louis and Tara's subplot might have been okay, but I still don't buy the idea that Tara would even go for Louis in the first place, so it's hard to get invested. Basically, the two of them go out again, despite Louis not being comfortable that Tara has another man in her life. Louis then immediately tells Tara that he doesn't want to share her, and Tara tells Louis to take her home. The next day, Tara says that her boyfriend is coming into town, and she hasn't made up her mind if she wants to break up with him or not. My problems with this are as follows: 1) I don't believe Tara would be interested in Louis. 2) This had the potential to be interesting if we had already seen Tara and Louis' relationship blossom into something more serious. Then, when Tara finds out her boyfriend is going to be in town, it could be a real dilemma about what she's going to do. As it was presented, it just made Tara seem like a bad person for leading them both on. 3) An alternate route would have been interesting as well - what if Louis actually tried to adapt to being in a poly-amorous relationship? There could have been some real exploration of this slightly unconventional dating scenario, and potential for some real growth out of Louis' character, but that was cut off at the pass, as Louis can't even start their second date without declaring that he won't share Tara with anyone. What a waste.

Then there's the other romance of the evening... Jessica Pearson and Jeff Malone. Ugh. Anybody who has read my reviews knows of my distaste for Jeff, but let's set that aside and just focus on what this episode gave us. Basically, Jessica and Jeff run into each other, and they go out to dinner. Jeff says he wants to take things slow, and Jessica then finds out that he's in the process of interviewing for a job in Chicago. Jessica has to remain dedicated to her firm, and Jeff has to go back to Chicago. It looks like there won't be any second chance for these two. (Unless Jessica decides to give up PSL and move to Chicago, which, given Gina Torres is leaving the show after this season, isn't impossible). See, my issue is this: if I were a casual viewer with a short attention span, I might have forgotten entirely about Jeff. And this brief little moment isn't enough for me to remember what they had, and why Jessica would be looking at him so longingly. I'll talk in the "pros" section about Jessica's characterization, because I do like where the show is taking her this season. But I just don't think Jeff is a good enough catalyst for a deeper exploration of Jessica's character.