Suits: Whale Hunt (8x12)

Aww poor Katrina!

Cons:

Nobody mentioned Mike this week and that makes me grumpy.

On a more serious note, I don't like the way that Gretchen has basically just taken over Donna's old role of fixing everybody else's emotional problems. I like seeing her put Harvey in his place, I guess, but the power dynamic is the same as it's always been, and it really shouldn't be the job of a secretary to tell name partners of a big law firm to stop being babies. It bothers me that she has to do that.

Pros:

Mostly, though, I thought this episode was outstanding. Let's start with Harvey and Louis, who both behaved really poorly this week. The thing is, though, this is still a big improvement from Louis' past screw-ups, or Harvey's past cocky machinations. They both got a little too heated, and they very well may have lost the opportunity to secure a new client. But you know what? The fate of a current client, or the firm, wasn't at stake here. And both Harvey and Louis were partially wrong, and partially right. They got steamed, they were harsh with each other, and then after only a little outside prodding, they cooled down and made it right. This is the type of conflict that makes me believe that these two could realistically be good attorneys. They have personalities that are always going to clash, but Harvey has learned to respect Louis' authority, and Louis has learned not to treat everything with Harvey as a competition. I loved that.

Modern Family: We Need to Talk About Lily (10x14)

This was okay. Two plot threads were kind of boring, but two were kind of fun.

Cons:

Jay and Gloria's plot thread didn't go far enough to be truly outrageous, or stay real enough to get properly emotional. Stella has always been the punchline to a joke about how manly man Jay gets all soft and affectionate over a dog, and treats the dog like a person. That's the one joke, and there's really not a lot of variety shown with it here. When Jay was acting like a dog in the car, getting excited to go to the park and sticking his head out the window, I was rolling my eyes pretty hard.

I don't really know what's going on with Alex. Sometimes I still think about how many wasted opportunities this show has when it comes to her character. She went to college, and I guess she's getting ready to graduate, but we didn't spend any substantial time with her at school. Why not? It would have been a way to mix things up a bit.

Pros:

I liked the moment in Jay's story where he talked about how Stella had chosen him, and how much he loved her. I feel they could have built it up more and done more with the emotional core of the story, but I thought that actual genuine moment worked okay.

Arrow: Past Sins (7x11)

This episode was okay, but it wasn't what I was expecting, and I found myself a little bored by some portions of it.

Cons:

Why did we spend all of last week on Emiko Queen only to basically drop her for this hour of television? I assumed she would be the focus, but no. Instead it was about Laurel and Oliver confronting completely different things about their pasts. Sure, there were some hints of Emiko's presence here, and we'll surely explore it more next week, but it felt like an odd direction to veer after setting up so much good stuff last week.

I still think Diggle and Lyla are being incredibly stupid to go ahead with the "Ghost Protocol" or whatever. Curtis is right. But even beyond being annoyed with their plan, I also just find all this stuff with ARGUS to be pretty uninteresting. It feels so disconnected from the rest of the story. I hate that we haven't seen Oliver and Diggle on screen together the past couple of weeks. I know their lives have taken them on different paths, but their friendship is one of my favorite things about the show! Come on!

Also, that moment when it appeared that Diaz had killed Curtis, and we went to a commercial break... oh come on. You expect me to buy that? Please. Don't insult my intelligence. Curtis is the only person in the ARGUS story-line that makes any sense, and I'm completely, indignantly, on his side on this one.

Outlander: Man of Worth (4x13)

I see that this finale has been kind of polarizing in the fandom, and honestly I don't really see why. If you haven't liked the season thus far, this finale isn't going to fix things. But if you have liked it, then this finale is exactly what it should be to wrap up all of these various story beats. For the most part, I did like this season. That's not to say I don't have my complaints, though... this episode was a bit of a mixed bag, in the same way that a lot of the season was.

Cons:

I will admit that this season has felt the most unbalanced out of the seasons of Outlander we've had thus far. The later books in the series are my favorite - I love spending time at Fraser's Ridge and being around as the Revolution starts to heat up. But the further along in the series you get, the more sprawling these novels become. They're not structured like most novels are. They're very meandering and rich with incident, and it makes for a real challenge in adaptation. I definitely felt that challenge here. The whole season does feel a bit meander-y. They hit all the important plot moments they need to hit, but there's less room for some of this stuff to breathe. Claire herself has a reduced role in this season, and that's a consequence of so much going on. In the books, though, the story just expands to encapsulate everyone and nobody feels diminished. That's not entirely possible in a TV show, though.

Some smaller notes: this season still didn't grapple enough with the issues of race that it presented. We see that Brianna and Phaedra have formed a friendship at River Run, but we don't see Brianna confront the fact that her friend is a slave in any meaningful way. Also, the romance between Murtagh and Jocasta relegates Ulysses to a complete background figure in this episode, which is another significant bummer. Also, as an added consequence of elevating Bree and Phaedra's moments, Lizzie becomes almost completely useless as a character. I feel like for people who haven't read the books, Lizzie is just a non-entity. She's there to muck up the truth for dramatic irony, but she doesn't have a purpose in the show beyond that.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: I'm Almost Over You (4x11)

Aww Nathaniel... you're killing me with this. I'm seriously so very sad and I don't know what to do about it.

Cons:

I'm starting to ever-so-slightly change my opinion about this new Greg. I think the actor is doing a great job, and I think he's playing a character that is realistically what Greg would be like after everything he's been through. But the energy between Rebecca and Greg is not the same as it was between Rebecca and... Greg. It feels like I'm watching Rebecca fall in love and start a relationship with someone completely new, not the same guy she had such a confusing relationship with in the past. I don't want to feel that way. I want to be 100% on board. But I have to be honest.

Pros:

After last week, I realized I really needed this episode. A full episode of Nathaniel working through his feelings and reconciling this new performative "good guy" thing with the realities of what that means for his relationship with Rebecca. If he's being a better person in order to get with Rebecca, then it's not real. But this episode shows him doing the hard emotional work, and coming to understand that he needs to move on with his life, and he needs to let Rebecca do the same. I personally am still kind of devastated about it... I think if I had to pick a romance that I would want to win in the end, I'd still pick Nathaniel. And maybe that's a weakness of this narrative, or maybe it's a strength, because I sincerely wish the best for Nathaniel and hope he finds happiness in his life, even if it's not with Rebecca.

Grey's Anatomy: Help, I'm Alive (15x10)

You know, I was feeling kind of annoyed at certain aspects of this episode, but I couldn't quite pin down why. So I went and I read a couple of reviews online, and I figured it out.

Cons:

Teddy is annoying me. It's been building for a while, but yeah. I've finally realized that she's pissing me off. Which is a shame, since I've always really liked her character, and I think it makes perfect sense that she's going through a difficult time right now. But she's annoying me in the same way Maggie often annoys me, in that she's drawing everyone in to her personal drama vortex in the most hurtful, destructive way she possibly could, and she seems completely unaware of it. She comes across as super entitled for thinking that she can just waltz her way into the hospital and get a job, and I'm kind of mad at Owen for just handing her head of trauma. I don't think she deserves it.

I'm torn about the Catherine-has-cancer plot thread, because I still, at my core, think it's really dumb and annoying, and I've never been Catherine's biggest fan. She's always bothered me. The performances are good, which I'll talk about later, but the entire premise stretches credulity way too much, and I'm just frustrated and annoyed by the whole thing.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: The Tattler (6x03)

Please try to tell me after this episode that Jake Peralta is straight. I dare you. Dude is totally bi.

Cons:

This was only an okay episode, not a great one. It felt kind of pointless, and while a lot of the jokes were funny, it was lacking a message or underpinning that could lend the episode some weight. So, Charles and Rosa talk about Rosa's love life, and there's lots of comedy there, but the resolution doesn't feel like it added anything to the characters. Terry, Holt, Hitchcock and Scully try and win a radio contest, and Holt learns how to have fun while wasting time, but we don't see any continuing development of Holt's main goals, or see how taking a break is an important part of accomplishing his ideal life. It's just funny, as opposed to funny and poignant. That's fine, but it's not mind-blowing or anything.

Is the girl that Rosa was dating but has since broken up with supposed to be Gina Rodriguez's character? If so, what a waste! I wanted to watch that romance unfold!

The Good Place: Pandemonium (3x13)

Well that was quite sad...

Cons:

I talked about this before. I get nervous with how often these characters are rebooted and we start at ground zero with their development. I was liking the fact that finally everyone was on the same page, and now we've got Chidi back to not remembering anything. I'm reserving harsh judgment, because I still think this situation is different enough that it could be intriguing, and this show hasn't let me down yet... but we'll have to wait and see.

Pros:

I want to start with the comedy this week, because there were so many funny moments. Just lots of witty repartee. I loved Janet telling Tahani about the effectiveness of a specific insult, given her social class. I loved Eleanor saying "cork blork" and then admiring the profanity filter for keeping the rhyme scheme. I loved Eleanor making a joke about being hot, Chidi calling her out on joking to deflect her pain, and Eleanor replying, through her tears: "It's not a joke, I'm a legit snack!" Through the pain, I was definitely smiling a lot in this episode.

This setup is just so genius. We've got this new experiment, with four new people, and the twist that Shawn has set up is that they're people specifically designed to neutralize the soul squad. One of the guys is someone who used to post cruel things about Tahani on his blog. And one of them is... Simone. Chidi's ex-girlfriend. This is just such an evil thing to do, and I love that I 100% didn't see it coming. The obvious ploy would be to send really evil, irredeemable people up to the new neighborhood, but Shawn didn't do that. He picked people who are totally able to be redeemed, but made it complicated for an unexpected reason. So sinister! So twisty!

Supernatural: Damaged Goods (14x11)

Ouch? That was... just... ouch.

Cons:

I don't care about Nick, and it bothers me that we spent so much time on him in this episode. The thing is, there could have been a version of this story that was clever or interesting, but they just didn't find it. I actually laughed out loud when Abraxis explained that he'd killed Nick's family in order to make him vulnerable for Lucifer. Like... yeah. Duh. Remember when we all briefly thought that Nick had killed his own family, and the darkness within him had drawn Lucifer to him? Well, that was a pretty predicable story. The only more predictable, more boring story I can think of is the one where Nick was just a random dude and Lucifer had his family killed to make him vulnerable. What was the surprise here? What was the point of drawing it out, and making it some mystery? What a waste of time.

Actually, more than a waste of time. Including Nick actually draws attention to a pretty significant plot hole. Unless I'm missing something. See, at the end of last season, our heroes had a weapon that was able to kill an Archangel. Dean (with Michael's aid) was able to kill Lucifer by stabbing him, and Nick survived. Why doesn't anybody suggest just repeating that process now? Killing Michael by stabbing Dean? If Nick could survive all of that, couldn't Dean?

Modern Family: Whanex? (10x13)

I mean, there was nothing in here that was offensive or anything... but I don't think I so much as cracked a smile during the whole episode.

Cons:

Gloria and Phil go to the mall with Joe and end up auditioning for a photo shoot to advertise the mall. Gloria and Phil end up getting really invested, but at the end of the day it's little Joe who gets to be a model, while Phil and Gloria are left out. This plot thread... was mostly nothingness. There was a little conclusion piece at the end that I enjoyed, but everything that it took to get there was a waste of time. Gloria being too "sexy" to be the wholesome mom, Phil saying he doesn't care but getting too invested, and Joe blithely uncaring about the results... all of this was just bland. I didn't laugh once. It was predictable. They either needed to spend more time with Gloria and Phil, or more time with Joe, but instead we didn't get enough focus on any of it.

Jay and Claire's plot thread had a similar problem of being entirely unfunny the whole way through, although I did like a little moment towards the end. The joke here is that Jay is old and out of touch technologically. He messes up the Skype call, keeps zooming in and can't hear anyone... it's such a cliche joke. I kept waiting for the show to put some sort of unique twist on it, but... nope. The joke is that the new people working with them are millennials, and Jay doesn't know how to keep up. Yawn.

Suits: Rocky 8 (8x11)

There are still some things to enjoy about this show, although I'll admit I heard the news that Season Nine will be its last with a great sense of relief.

Cons:

I understand that this show is never going to be realistic to the way an actual law firm runs, but there are just some things that stick out to me as being really funny, unintentionally, about the way Louis is supposed to act as managing partner. At the firm I work at, the position is something passed between partners, and it's certainly a position of honor, but it's more like being the person who sets the message. Here, it's like Louis is supposed to be a babysitter and interfere with the specific clients that Harvey and Robert choose to take. That's... not what Louis' job should be. It makes no sense at all. And Donna trying to push him into taking more responsibility fell really flat for me. It's been only a couple of days, and already Donna is telling him he's a failure because Harvey and Robert are taking on a difficult case? Sheesh.

Also, I know this ultimately isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but Zane Specter Litt Wheeler Williams is a mouthful and it's still dumb that people can just fight to get their name on the wall. What happens in a couple of years when Katrina wants that honor? It's getting silly.

Pros:

Harvey and Robert's case has to do with someone throwing a boxing match. I liked all the ups and downs, and how Louis steps in and comes up with a solution that gets their client mostly off the hook, and also humiliates their rival, as revenge for what he did to Jessica. I like it when we can get a solid win, but this win was complex. Harvey finds out the truth, but almost lets a struggling boxer take the fall, when the guy was just trying to do what's best for his family. His client gets what he wants, for the most part, but still has to take a small hit, and while the humiliation does come through, it doesn't change the fact that Jessica has been disbarred in New York.

Arrow: My Name Is Emiko Queen (7x10)

Melodrama runs in the family, apparently! Let's meet Emiko Queen.

Cons:

Diggle going behind Oliver's back to use Diaz for help is... well, it's kind of stupid. Here's the thing about Diaz: he's boring. Here's the other thing about this situation: we don't understand the stakes well enough to get why using Diaz is a good risk. Who is this person that ARGUS is trying to take down? Why do we care? I honestly don't feel very connected to Diggle's story when it's completely divorced from Team Arrow.

And then the same complaint that I've been having all season about the flash-forwards: we still don't know where Thea is, where Oliver is, now we don't know where Emiko is either. We don't know what caused this terrible rift between Team Arrow. Sure, we're starting to get some answers revealed here and there, but it's happening too slowly, and certain pieces of information are being obscured through sloppy writing, because there's no good reason for these people to be talking around important pieces of information.

So, before the crossover event, Felicity and Oliver were having marital troubles. Then, in the crossover, we see them reconnect, which is cute and great or whatever, but is that really it? Are we not going back to exploring how Olicity's time apart has hurt them? And where's William? Still in boarding school? I just hope that we get to explore the family tensions more moving forward and that there's more to that plot thread.

Outlander: Providence (4x12)

I loved this episode so much. It actually didn't even occur to me that Jamie and Claire were barely in it. I was so invested in the other stories that I didn't even mind.

Cons:

There is this one thing that I used to bring up back in the first season, but that I haven't really mentioned more recently, and that's pacing. I feel that the show sometimes doesn't give a good sense of how much time is passing. How long have Claire and Jamie been at Fraser's Ridge? Marsali's pregnancy happened so quickly that the first time we saw Germain, I was surprised because I thought maybe Marsali was still just barely pregnant and not showing yet. And Brianna is clearly well along in her pregnancy now, but we don't see any little snippets of time passing at River Run. What do Bree and Lord John do all day? This isn't like a huge problem that ruins the show or anything, but it is something that I occasionally notice, especially when we cut back to characters and clearly months have passed, and we don't really get a mention of what those months were like.

Pros:

Let's start with Roger. I've been perfectly happy with Roger as a character thus far, but nothing has really elevated my appreciation beyond just the basics. This week changed that. Richard Rankin was astounding in this episode. He really gave these scenes everything he had, and it shows. The speech he made about putting himself first, and then the moment when he realizes he can't do that... chills. All of the other characters were also expertly rendered, and I felt so much of their emotions and their tragedy.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: I Can Work With You (4x10)

Aw man, you guys… I honestly don’t know how I feel about Greg and Rebecca! My poor heart has been torn in two!

Cons:

Sometimes I honestly feel a bit trapped by this show, because I know the point isn’t who Rebecca ends up with as a romantic interest. I know it’s “a lot more complex than that.” But I also feel compelled by these characters in a way that I can’t help but ship certain pairings, root for certain romances to succeed, and so on. And in this episode, I honestly don’t know if I’m supposed to be thrilled about Rebecca and Greg (which I sort of am) or crushed about Nathaniel (which I definitely am) or worried about Rebecca (which I’m not, right now… she seems to be doing pretty well). This is probably good storytelling, but I just wanted to point out that I’m feeling conflicted, and not in the good way that I like to be conflicted.

On a more granular note, I’m actually a little disappointed that Greg was able to forgive Rebecca for sleeping with his dad. When that happened back in Season Three, that was the lowest of low moments. Rebecca almost died by suicide shortly after that. The consequences seemed pretty clear in the moment. Among many other concerns, it seemed crystal clear that she’d lost any potential future with Greg by doing that. And now… apparently not. I guess I wish we could have had even more time with Greg, so we could understand where he’s coming from and why he was able to forgive her and move forward from it. I don’t think most people would have been able to do that.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Hitchcock & Scully (6x02)

So much fun! I love this show a lot.

Cons:

I liked the feud between Terry and Amy, but I felt like it might have been a good opportunity to introduce maybe some fun secondary characters, men in uniform from the two competing parts of the squad. Instead, everything stayed firmly in the Amy vs. Terry and Rosa camp. Not a flaw of the episode we got, I suppose, just an observation about something that might have been fun.

Pros:

It seems like one of our over-arching themes of this season is going to be dealing with corruption in the police force. Holt is taking on the new Commissioner and not backing down even though the Nine-Nine is suffering for it. I like that we're taking on this somewhat controversial topic. It's always been simmering in the background of the show, and it was about time to bring it to the forefront for a longer story thread. I like the Commissioner character. He's such a specific kind of bad guy - cheerful, seemingly reasonable, and yet without sympathy or humanity. I can't wait to watch Holt try and take this guy down.

Terry and Amy did crack me up with their feud, especially when Amy escalated it way too far with the microwave. Of course, Rosa did involve a widow by asking her to sign a contract for the microwave, so maybe both sides took it a bit far. Their childish antics make for fun sitcom scenarios, but more than that they highlight the consequences of fighting for justice. Holt keeps dismissing all of these petty concerns about overcrowded work areas, but by the end he has realized that his actions have consequences, and that fighting for what's right is going to be difficult in more ways than one. Also, I laughed when Jake realized he'd missed a whole thing between Amy and Terry at the precinct. It was a fun way to call out the concept of a plot and subplot in a standard sitcom episode.

Grey's Anatomy: Shelter from the Storm (15x09)

Yay I'm glad this show is finally back. So much drama. I'm going to try be brief... we'll see how that goes.

Cons:

The baby drama is not compelling to me... sorry Teddy. I really do like you as a character. It's just so... basic melodramatic. There are other basic melodrama tropes in this show - in this very episode - that I like, but it's just a personal preference thing. The angst-filled love triangle, the pregnancy, etc. etc. It's just an annoying snooze fest. I particularly didn't like that Amelia has decided to give Owen some space. Just... come on. Can we stop going down this road?

I loved the scenes with Meredith and DeLuca in the elevator, I really did, but I hate it when shows get their nerd jargon wrong. DeLuca talks about Doctor Who and calls the character Doctor Who, instead of the Doctor. Isn't there a single nerd working in the writer's room that could catch something like that? Sheesh.

Pros:

Okay. Let's rapid-fire this.

The Big Bang Theory: The Confirmation Polarization (12x13)

This was a pretty good episode. At least in comparison to other episodes of this show.

Cons:

There's something troubling about Amy's characterization here. She's always willing to make these sacrifices for Sheldon's happiness. I know relationships involve sacrifice, and I know that ultimately Sheldon did the right thing in potentially giving up his Nobel Prize for Amy... but it's annoying that Amy is so willing to throw her accomplishments away for Sheldon's sake. She doesn't even really seem to consider it for very long. It's almost like she's used to putting Sheldon's needs ahead of her own...

Pros:

But ultimately, it's great that Sheldon does the right thing. I liked the moment when he doubted himself, and said he hoped he wasn't the sort of person who would sell out his partner for a Nobel Prize. It showed a real self-awareness that I appreciated. Winning a Nobel Prize is something that Sheldon has wanted for a long time, much longer than he's known and loved Amy. But at the end of the day, he won't betray his commitment to her, no matter what.

The Good Place: Chidi Sees the Time-Knife (3x12)

This show is actually really challenging to review sometimes, because it's just so good, and it's doing so many cool things, that I kind of don't know where to start.

Cons:

I was properly intimidated by Shawn when we first met him, while still being entertained by him. I feel like some of his threat level has been taken away. But also, I should wait and watch next week's episode before I jump to conclusions.

I saw someone point out a potential problem with the argument Michael is making about how complicated the world is. Buying a tomato loses you points because of all the unintended choices you're making with your dollars. Okay, fine. But if the argument is that it's more complicated now than it's ever been, don't we have to grapple with the fact that if you go back a couple of hundred years, people just going about in their lives were directly or indirectly benefiting from systems of oppression that then grew into the systems of oppression that we have today? So, for example, a white person benefiting from white privilege is actually benefiting from the legacy of slavery in the United States, right? Living in a global economy does make things more confusing. But that's not the same thing as saying that things were simple and linear in the past. Maybe they'll address this moving forward, or maybe I'm just thinking about it too hard.

Supernatural: Nihilism (14x10)

My heart!!!

Cons:

When Maggie was leading the gang from the alternate world, I literally forgot who she was for a second. I didn't hate her moments in the episode, but this character, and all of the folks from the apocalypse world, have been somewhat mismanaged this season. We needed more buildup for them. Also, is Garth still in the trunk? Ha.

How did they get cuffs that could contain an Archangel? That felt a tad unrealistic to me. This show famously has a big problem with power creep, but an equally big problem is that the Winchesters have exactly as much power as the show needs them to have, for whatever plot contrivance they've come up with. These cuffs exist, but in another moment they might not, depending on whether or not they want Michael to be free.

Pros:

But whatever. This episode kicked ass. I love Dean so much and I'm so sad all of the time about him. But let's start with some smaller subplot stuff first.

Modern Family: Blasts from the Past (10x12)

This episode had a good heart to it. It wasn't perfect, and some of the comedy was a bit cliche, but overall I found it pleasant to watch.

Cons:

The place where I felt the cliches were the strongest was with Dylan's hippie mom. She does a bunch of predictable "new age" stuff, talks about home birth, makes homeopathic remedies, kisses Phil and Claire both on the mouth when meeting them. It's not painfully bad or anything, but it's also not fresh or insightful. It would have been better if maybe Dylan and his mother had interacted more, so we could see how Dylan grew up and how his mom shaped him as a person. The comedy was pulling only from a general and non-specific well, instead of springing from the characters themselves. And the weird joke about her being in a sexy music video that Phil loved when he was a kid... that was bizarre and didn't really seem to go anywhere.

I also thought Manny's little moments in this episode were weird, and kind of insufferable. Suddenly we learn that he had a short fling with some girl at the library, and that he rejected her for someone else. Is he still with Sherry? These little snippets were played entirely for laughs and didn't seem to have any bearing on the rest of the story. They felt out of place. Manny is low-key the worst.

Outlander: If Not For Hope (4x11)

Lord John! My love!

Cons:

I actually really super-duper loved this episode. I liked both of the subplots, and of course I loved the Lord John and Brianna stuff. However, there are a couple of substantive complaints that I must talk about first, and then we're going to get in to the "nitpick corner" where I discuss a detail from the books that was altered very strangely.

Okay. First for the more significant problem. We're back at River Run with Brianna, which means we have to grapple with the fact that Jocasta Cameron owns slaves, and that Bree is benefiting from that. How is the question handled here? Brianna treats Phaedra like an equal while still letting her serve her, and glares at people who say racist stuff. That's pretty much it. I don't know how this issue is supposed to be treated in a narrative like this, and I'm not saying I envy the writers who have to work it out. But here, the fact that Phaedra and Ulysses are slaves, and that there are countless other slaves on the plantation, is treated as window dressing to a more interesting and relevant story, and that rubs me the wrong way.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: I Need Some Balance (4x09)

Great episode. Great laughs, great drama, great title, great acting, just... great. Man, this show kicks some serious ass.

Cons:

I freakin' loved the Cats motif, don't get me wrong, but I do notice that this is yet another episode this season that doesn't have any new favorites for me. There are so many songs from the first three seasons that I feel like listening to on repeat right after finishing the episode, and I haven't found that to be true with as many songs this season. I'm sure we've still got some great stuff coming up, though.

Pros:

Where to even begin? I love that Rebecca's dislike for the musical Cats ends up creating a musical motif for an entire episode of the show. What a strange throwaway joke to become such a big focus! All of the musical interludes with the cats were just hilarious. I think the first one was my favorite, but they were all excellent, and added so much to the energy and themes of the episode.

The Good Place: The Book of Dougs (3x11)

Chidi and Eleanor are so cute I might scream.

Cons:

This isn't, like, a big or serious complaint, but I do want to point out that the counsel of people from the Good Place being really slow about helping is just stolen directly from the Ent Moot in The Lord of the Rings. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I wish there had been maybe something a bit more creative going on there.

Also, I'm confused about something. See, either I've caught a plot hole, or I'm being too hasty and I just don't understand the full picture yet. Doug Forcett is Michael's reason for thinking that the points system is corrupt, because he lives a totally selfless life and is still not making it in to the Good Place. But one of the big elements this season was about the Soul Squad, doing good for just the sake of doing good, without expecting reward. In fact, explicitly, the fact that the gang knows about the afterlife means that their motivations are impure and they can never gain points. If Doug Forcett is behaving the way he does because he believes that he needs points to go to the Good Place, doesn't that invalidate his candidacy anyway? Michael comes to a totally different conclusion in this episode, related to the fact that the world is complicated, and that even making a nice gesture can involve polluting the planet during transport, using an unethical corporation to buy someone a gift, etc. But I thought this was all building to something to do with intent, and now it seems like that's not what's going on. Usually, when I'm confused by this show, it's a good thing, because it means I can't see the full picture. But here... I'm genuinely a bit concerned that they're missing a piece of their own world-building.

The Big Bang Theory: The Propagation Proposition (12x12)

I'm bored. With this show. Honestly.

Cons:

Leonard is going to be a surrogate for Zack, Penny's ex. I think they've run out of material in a big way. I didn't hate everything this plot thread had to offer, which I'll discuss in a minute, but generally speaking it's just... boring and predictable and nothing we haven't seen before. Zack and his wife didn't make me smile even once.

And then there are Raj and Anu. Again, there were actually elements here that I thought worked pretty well, but the concept itself annoys me. Watching Raj go through with a genuinely arranged marriage, as is common in India but rare in America, would have been an actually cool and different thing to do. Instead, we're taking this middle-of-the-road approach to things. Raj and Anu aren't going to get married soon, but they aren't entirely breaking up either. They're going to try and go out on a date. If I were to tell you the story of this plot thread over the season, this is the exact thing you would expect to happen. I wanted something fresh and unexpected, but I honestly didn't have high hopes, or any hope, of getting that.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Honeymoon (6x01)

I love this show with every fiber of my being. I was a little nervous that changing networks would dull the magic somehow, but I'm happy to report that this didn't happen!

Cons:

I honestly can't think of much to complain about. Maybe I would have wished for a bit more time for the whole gang to be together, because I've been missing their group dynamic. But there's plenty of time for that this season, so really I didn't mind the smaller stories here at all! The weakest was probably Rosa and Terry's, because it felt very predictable, but even that plot thread I liked quite a bit.

Pros:

Let's start with that, then, shall we? Terry is insecure being in charge while Holt is taking time off, but Rosa helps to give him confidence by showing him that Holt believes in him and trusts him completely. I like seeing Terry get a chance to lead, because he is very good at it, even though his style is so different from Holt's. Also, it was fun that Gina had this somewhat invisible role in the story, as she was dealing with her subplot with Boyle, and yet her lack of help kept influencing Terry's spiral into despair. She could have helped him from the first moment there was a problem, but instead Terry breaks Holt's laptop and researches religion all to get Holt's manual, a copy of which Gina had the whole time. That was pretty great.

Modern Family: A Moving Day (10x11)

Eh. This episode felt like kind of a letdown.

Cons:

First of all, I'm just a broken record at this point, but Jay, Gloria, and Manny's stories almost never work for me anymore. I'm hardly ever amused, even slightly. Manny is being controlled by his girlfriend, so Gloria controls Jay to get him to talk to Manny about it. It's... ironic, or whatever? Because Gloria is manipulative but doesn't like that Sherry is manipulative? I've got to say, this show can be incredibly tone deaf when it comes to issues of social justice and gender. There's this moment where Manny says something about how toxic masculinity is bad, and Jay then says "yeah, masculinity is bad, until someone needs to kill a spider!" I'm paraphrasing, but you get what I'm saying. In this moment, the framing is such that we're supposed to think Manny is wrong-footed for being "anti-masculinity." But he didn't say that. Nobody is saying that masculinity is bad. That's why you put the word "toxic" in front of it, guys. Irritating. Also, Sherry is boring and adds nothing.

Pam also adds nothing. She's not boring, but she is annoying. There were elements about Cam and Mitchell's story that I liked just fine, but Pam is pretty irritating most of the time. Also, although Lily isn't exactly a great example of child acting, I felt like her dry wit might have added something to these scenes.

Outlander: The Deep Heart's Core (4x10)

I know that I need to talk about this week's episode, but I'm already just so pumped to see John Grey next week. I'm predictable like that. Also, this episode was really not my favorite, and I've got a lot of things to say about it, so buckle in.

Cons:

I always admire stories where everyone is a little bit wrong and a little bit right, where you can see and sympathize with all sides of the story even if you know that various people should have handled things differently. I think that's what this episode is going for - Jamie is wrong, but his motivations are understandable. Brianna should have been more honest, but her reticence also makes sense. I want to like this story - I want to believe they did justice to this bizarre scenario, but I think there are a lot of things here that just fall flat.

For one, let's look at Jamie's story here. He is the survivor if a truly horrific rape, and that is discussed at the start of this episode with a great amount of candor. And yet when Bree and Claire realize that Jamie beat Roger, the man he believed raped his daughter, they both condemn his actions full-force. Let's take a second and think about how things would have been different if Jamie had beat up Stephen Bonnet. Claire and Brianna might have been a bit horrified at the brutality, and concerned that Jamie would go off the handle like that, but I doubt they would have turned on him for it. Sure, maybe Jamie shouldn't have trusted Lizzie's word, but are we supposed to blame Jamie for being a little bit irrational when it comes to the subject of rape? He just found his daughter, he's just forming a relationship with her, and now he's confronted with the fact that she has suffered through something enormously traumatic - an experience he can relate to first hand - and we're supposed to be pissed off that he's not acting rationally?

The Big Bang Theory: The Paintball Scattering (12x11)

This episode is a good study in one of this show's most persistent problems. It's not a terrible episode, not particularly offensive in any way, it's just... boring. Let's talk about that.

Cons:

This is often true of this show, but I found it especially noticeable in this episode: everything that you think is going to happen, happens. Every plot point introduced leads to the most obvious conclusion. Amy gets attention without Sheldon? Well, clearly Sheldon is going to get jealous, and then later apologize or realize Amy was right. Check. Denise wants to move in with Stuart? He's going to freak out and almost ruin things, but then they'll make up. What's the least interesting, most predictable, thing you can do with Raj and Anu? How about have them doubt their relationship? What's the most predictable thing you can do with the setup that Raj has access to an app that shows his fiancee's front door? Have him be jealous of a strange man who turns up, of course! Everything follows the exact predictable beats that we can all see coming a mile away. Jokes are about breaking expectations... and my expectations were not subverted even once in this whole episode. Even Howard shooting Bernadette during the paintball game. The instant Bernie started getting upset, I knew the punchline would be that she was actually turned on.

Speaking of the paintball game, I feel like this episode is yet another example of wasted opportunities. I'm glad they got the whole gang together and actually showed some of the game, but think about what you can do with a paintball episode! This show is never going to be Community, obviously, but couldn't it put a bit more effort into its set-piece episodes? Sigh.

Doctor Who: Resolution (2019 New Years Special)

Yeah okay, that was a lot of fun!

Cons:

I'm not upset on principle that we didn't get a Christmas Special. That's totally fine. But I will admit, there's a lot less you can do with New Year's Day. It just doesn't have as many iconic elements. Ultimately, the time of the year didn't really influence the plot in any major way. There was some dialogue peppered in throughout, but it didn't really match the fun Christmas spirit that some of the past specials have managed to capture. It's a small point, but one I thought I'd mention.

I love seeing the Daleks return, I really do, but I do have to admit that I chuckled when the classic Dalek design finally appeared. The Dalek had been legitimately threatening as a squid thing, but I wasn't feeling properly scared of it in the big dramatic scene where it first appears in its traditional form. They really amped up the music and clearly wanted to make that a big moment, and I thought it fell a tiny bit flat.

Pros:

So much! This was a fun episode that kept me gripped from beginning to end.