Arrow: Confessions (7x20)

This was one of the best episodes of Arrow ever!

Cons:

It was a little silly that Roy was the group's best solution to the problem with the Ninth Circle. They said it was because Emiko and the others already knew all their faces, so they needed to bring someone new in. But if that were the case, could they not turn to someone in ARGUS or an undercover cop? It didn't seem to really matter much that Roy was an unknown - they all went in together, and made no attempt to hide their identities. What I'm saying is, I loved seeing Roy, but the justification for getting him here seemed a bit flimsy.

Pros:

Where to start?

This episode seriously surprised me. Usually I'm a good guesser when it comes to twists, but I think I just let myself be in the moment for this one, so the reveals totally took me by surprise. Through most of this episode, I was getting ready to be pretty critical of it. I was so annoyed at the inconsistent, nonsensical characterization of Dinah. Why would she be questioning her team like that? Why would Oliver not have told her the plan? None of it made any sense, and I was getting ready to be frustrated at this apparent retcon of Dinah's development this season. And then? Turns out, she was in on the plan all along, and working with Team Arrow to protect Roy. That was a great twist!

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Ticking Clocks (6x14)

This episode is incredibly clever, so much so that it's not quite as funny as I wish it was.

Cons:

The idea of doing an episode in real-time sounds great, but in reality it slows things down, because we can't cut to just the funny meat of things, but instead need to show the transitional moments between them. For that reason, I felt like some of the episode was treading water, especially the scenes with the mean sorority girls making fun of Terry.

I also didn't much like the recurring bit with Jake saying the name of the lasagna before every commercial bit. It worked fine the first time, but got old very quickly.

I really like the idea of Rosa and Jocelyn working on their relationship, but I think one problem is that we haven't seen the two of them function as a happy couple, so we don't understand what it is that Rosa's fighting for exactly. It seems like Jocelyn is being a little harsh, given the literal crisis going on around her. We just don't have enough context to fully grasp this relationship.

The Big Bang Theory: The Decision Reverberation (12x20)

I'm going to rapid-fire this one.

Cons:

I wish the writers of this show were actual nerds, or that they got actual nerds to look it over, so that their discussions would sound realistic. The idea of the guys sitting around trying to decide what time to go see Avengers: Endgame is so patently ridiculous to me, because if these guys are as nerdy as they're supposed to be, they definitely bought their tickets for opening weekend weeks ago. It's little things like this that have made me frustrated with this show from day one.

This episode wasn't offensively bad or anything, but it was yet another example of the show being half-assed with its ideas. Leonard is going to stand up for himself and be a stronger advocate? Sure, but his plan doesn't really lead to any real changes in his life. He gets a cool new opportunity at work, but with only four new episodes to go, it's unlikely we'll get to actually explore that as a real character development. Similarly, it's always nice, or whatever, when we see that Sheldon cares about Leonard and is trying to be a good friend, but we don't get a chance to actually explore Sheldon's jealousy vs. his real concerns over Leonard's career choices. It's not like I expected anything better out of this show, but still.

Supernatural: Moriah (14x20)

Well then! Yeesh!

Cons:

I wish we could do a bit more to sort out this whole Cas vs. Dean thing. Now that we've got bigger fish to fry for next season, it seems like Dean and Cas' pretty intense disagreement will likely be pushed aside in favor of... you know... surviving the end-times. But maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised, and their relationship drama will continue to be a factor as we enter into the final season of this show.

I really, really like the direction this is going, but I can't help but wonder if there were re-writes once the decision was made that Season Fifteen would be the end. It seems to me that several elements of the story, especially the stuff with Lucifer coming back, wound up being scrapped in favor of the ridiculously awesome reveal that Chuck is our final Big Bad. So while this finale on its own kicked some major ass, there were definitely some elements that didn't add up for me in terms of the buildup from the rest of the season.

Arrow: Spartan (7x19)

Any episode focusing on John Diggle is going to get props from me!

Cons:

The flash-forward stuff is still moving at this really annoying glacial pace. We obviously haven't seen John and Lyla adopt a son, but we now know that Mia's love interest Connor is supposed to be JJ's brother. And yet, we don't actually get to see much of anything here. I want the flash-forward plots to feel relevant and engaging, but everything is moving so slowly, and I just want the pieces to be connected already. We got a lot of father/son dynamics in the main plot with John and his step-father, so I wish I could have felt a stronger connection to this future Diggle family drama. Where is John? Is he dead? Would be nice to have answers to these basic questions at this point.

Pros:

I really liked the stuff with Diggle and his stepfather. It was nice to see some family drama separate from the Queen stuff. All of the family angst is really what drew me to this show in the first place. I like that Oliver was there for John, and helped out however he was able, but was also willing to respect how his friend was feeling. I feel like the script didn't give Oliver and the others a lot of space to be worried when John was taken hostage, but Stephen Amell's performance did a lot of heavy lifting. He was terse and tense and I appreciated the weight of his fear.

Grey's Anatomy: Head Over High Heels (15x22)

Well that was a rough one.

Cons:

I will now lodge my familiar complaint: I don't want Teddy and Owen to get together, and I think Amelia should mind her own business, and I think Tom and Teddy are way better together... and also Owen's trauma being that his dad died was just kind of... underwhelming? I wish that this all hadn't happened in one episode, I guess. Just last week, we were introduced to the idea that maybe Owen's shitty behavior was due to PTSD that was making it impossible for him to be happy. Okay, I could buy that. But now this week, he goes to therapy and in his very first session he gets to the heart of the issue and has a nice cathartic cry? Yikes, I didn't realize it was that easy. It all felt way too convenient for me.

Jackson asks Maggie to move in with him. I don't hate this pairing with every fiber of my being anymore... when they're not undergoing drama of their own, they are perfectly inoffensive to me. But this feels like a big step, and now I have to complain about it because inevitably we're going to have to deal with Maggie having a meltdown and being insecure and rambling about it, and I'm just sick and tired of that.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: The Bimbo (6x13)

I love Kevin and Raymond so much!

Cons:

Amy and Terry's plot thread was totally harmless and not awful or anything, I just felt like it didn't stick the landing as much as I wanted it to. The humor was good. I think my problem is that Amy's role as a sergeant hasn't been explored that much, and this felt like an odd way of shining a spotlight on it. Why does it have to be a competition between her and Terry? This plot thread might have worked better if we'd seen more of Amy flourishing in this new role. I want to understand how she's doing in this job, before we see wacky hi-jinks ensue.

Pros:

But there were plenty of moments in the subplot that still made me laugh. I actually found Hitchcock and Scully more amusing here than I usually do. Basically, they keep making it to both Amy and Terry's fun morale-boosting activities, because the free food gives them the ability to be in two places at once. It's a simple conceit, but it works and continues to escalate throughout the episode.

The Big Bang Theory: The Inspiration Deprivation (12x19)

I did feel a little bit bad for Amy, and it's always a good-ish sign when an episode of this show makes me feel anything...

Cons:

At one point over the many years of watching this show, I actually thought that Howard and Bernadette were a strong element, in that their relationship felt relatable to me in some way. I even wrote about it in reviews. I don't feel that way anymore, and this episode is the perfect example of why. Both Howard and Bernadette come off looking like mean-spirited cliches of a husband and a wife. Howard buys a motor scooter and lies to Bernadette about it, because he needs something to remind him he's still a man. That's gross and annoying, and basically confirms that Howard sees his family as a burden. But then on the other hand, Bernadette isn't taking Howard's frankly alarming behavior seriously, and is instead falling in to cliches about being the no-nonsense shrew who doesn't let her husband off the leash. They seriously both came across looking so bad here!

Also, there's just so much casual sexism in the scene where Howard is talking about the HR lady. Can we knock it off with that crap?

Supernatural: Jack in the Box (14x19)

I feel so bad for literally everyone in this situation.

Cons:

It's pretty stupid that Jack was able to destroy the box so easily. I mean, that thing was supposed to contain Michael in his true vessel. Are we supposed to believe that Jack, who is only half-angel, is more powerful than Michael? Or is it that Dean messed up somehow, and the box wouldn't have worked on Michael in the first place? I just felt like that was a really sloppy piece of writing.

And speaking of sloppy writing, who the hell were all of those people at Mary's wake? I thought the apocalypse world hunters all died in Michael's attack. If there were still a ton of other people around, then why did they even bother to do the big death scene? They could have kept people out of the way by just saying they'd all settled down elsewhere and were continuing to hunt. I'm forever going to be bitter about the way they handled that.

Bobby was in this episode for like two seconds. Maybe he's in the finale, but even so, it felt like a wasted cameo if nothing else. He shows up to tell the Winchesters that Jack needs to be killed. Not as revenge for Mary's death, exactly, but because he's too dangerous. This could have been any generic person giving that piece of exposition. I thought Mary and Bobby had a special connection, and that was totally wasted here.

Arrow: Lost Canary (7x18)

So... I have a theory, but maybe it's a stupid one, or maybe I'm missing something? Let's discuss.

Cons:

If we look at this episode in a bubble, there was so much to love about it, particularly the main plot with Laurel, Felicity, Dinah, and Sara. But at the same time, there's a tiny little subplot with Oliver and Diggle that is supposed to continue the Emiko story-line, and we get the slightest glimpses of the future plot, with Mia trying to take down the bad guys, and both of these smaller plots really left something to be desired. I honestly think there might just be too much going on this season. I still don't feel satisfied with the number of questions we still have, related to the number of answers we're just barely starting to get.

Okay, my off-the-wall theory, one that I've seen some people float earlier in the season but I never really took seriously? Is the future we've been seeing all this time the future of Earth-2? Reasons why this might be the direction they're going: Laurel says she's going back to Earth-2 at the end of the episode, and unless she decides to come back, maybe she stays and that's why we're seeing her in the future? Also, this would give them an easy-ish way of fixing stuff, by copping out on the full angst of what this future holds. But that's also why it would be pretty stupid if they did this. If we find out that this is just alternate versions of all of our beloved characters, I'll be even more annoyed at the time we spent building up the future timeline, only for nothing to go anywhere satisfying.

Grey's Anatomy: Good Shepherd (15x21)

So, I don't like Amelia generally. This episode is Amelia-centric. I was nervous about how I would feel about it... and mostly pleasantly surprised with the results!

Cons:

Amelia's sisters weren't just kind of annoying and passive aggressive... they were nightmares. Like, truly awful people, especially Kathleen (Amy Acker). Their terrible behavior made for some good character moments for Amelia, and I can understand why they would be upset once they learned that Link wasn't really Owen... but they were unrealistically nasty! I would have been able to connect to this scenario a bit more if Kathleen and Nancy weren't so terrible. I couldn't understand why they were being so vindictive and cruel to their little sister.

Pros:

I really liked the story of the two brothers. I was genuinely scared that the patient was going to die, because I'd formed a really strong bond to their characters right away. Obviously the older brother is always taking care of the little brother, but at the end, big bro confesses to Amelia that he's scared of losing his brother when he goes off to college. It's not a one-way street. They are family to each other, and neither of them wants to lose the other.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Casecation (6x12)

I'm... kind of mad.

Cons:

I liked the angst and deep emotions of Jake and Amy's conversations. But I'm honestly really frustrated with both of them, that they didn't discuss kids before getting married. That feels like a rookie mistake, and not something that Amy would ever let happen, even if Jake screwed it up somehow. It feels unrealistic to what we know of them as a couple, because they're normally such great communicators. This is a situation where the premise of the episode itself is a bit annoying to me, but what they did within that premise was really strong.

Pros:

I'll admit, the reveal of Pam as a sleeper villain was something I did not see coming, even though I totally should have. I think the episode was smart to keep the case-of-the-week very low-key, and not have it come into play very much at all until the end. It means that we're focusing on the interesting character work, not on the case for which we have no personal connection. Pam was there to be a silly color commentator, adding comedy to Jake and Amy's anniversary. And she was hilarious the whole way through, especially when she was rambling while holding an explosive device, and Jake was trying to calm her down. Antonio Banderas in Outlander? Okay, I'm interested!

Supernatural: Absence (14x18)

Well... yep.

Cons:

This is only a con if it doesn't get addressed in future weeks, but I am mad about the way Dean spoke to Cas. Actually, it's not quite that cut and dry - I'm not necessarily mad that he lashed out and said something hurtful, but I'm mad that even after Dean admits to Sam that the blame isn't solely on Cas, we don't get to see Dean and Cas discuss what happened. If this ends up happening in the next two episodes, I'll eat my words, but for now, I'm frustrated by Dean's behavior and a lack of resolution therein.

I see that Bobby is in the promo for next week's episode, but even so, I was slightly annoyed the whole episode wondering why nobody was mentioning him or calling him or anything. He and Mary were, like, a thing, right? Shouldn't he have had the opportunity to be present at her funeral?

Modern Family: Can't Elope (10x20)

I thought this episode was just fine, although I could have wished for a bit more from such an important milestone!

Cons:

Mainly, I feel like this episode was a bit too crowded. It's fun when the whole gang gets together, but the consequence of having so many characters and plots interwoven is that we didn't get much time to focus on the emotional underpinnings of Haley and Dylan's wedding throughout. We got it at the end, sure, but I felt like there could have been more.

Some of the plot threads didn't really hit their mark in terms of comedy. It's somewhat amusing to see Jay get so invested in his dog bed company, but the setup of having him meet a canine Instagram influencer was a bit underutilized. They could have gone way bigger and more ridiculous with that setup.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: I'm In Love (4x17)

I can't believe it's over! I am experiencing many emotions!

Cons:

I'm trying really, really hard not to let my brain run away with me about all the things we didn't get to see, but that tends to be a problem whenever a show comes to an end. Even if I like the material we got, I feel cheated of what we didn't get. I'm upset that WhiJo didn't get some sort of happiness. I didn't want him and Darryl back together at this point, because it wouldn't have worked within the narrative, but... something. We never got to see Paula's husbands and kids again. There were things from Rebecca's past that were never brought up, like Trent or the professor guy from her college that arguably kick-started this whole thing. I suppose I didn't need to see every little character get a moment to shine, but I wish I could have had it anyway.

Grey's Anatomy: The Whole Package (15x20)

Oh man... Jo. This is upsetting.

Cons:

I love the idea of Link and Jo being close friends, but it bothers me that the show set up that dynamic between them and then doesn't show it for long stretches of time. If they're supposed to be each other's "person" like Meredith and Alex, we need more evidence of that.

I really love Megan, and I was so thrilled to see her at first, but then I realized she was team Teddy/Owen and I just can't get on board with that. There was one really awesome element of what Megan said to Owen, and I'll talk about that in a second, but for the majority of the episode, I was getting so frustrated at Megan for not understanding the bigger picture here. I feel like the narrative of the show wants me to root for Owen and Teddy at this point, and I just... I can't. I'll root for Owen and happiness. I'll root for Teddy and happiness. And I'm just not convinced they can find that with each other. The show has demonstrated nothing but angst and pain between the two of them. I really like Teddy and Tom. I'm firmly in the camp of wanting them to work it out. If I'm not supposed to feel that way as a viewer, then... well, they screwed up making Koracick too likable and interesting.

The Big Bang Theory: The Laureate Accumulation (12x18)

To the surprise of nobody, this episode mostly just bored me.

Cons:

There were elements of Howard's story that I really liked, but as is often the case with this show, they have to thrown in a quick joke that undercuts their message in a stupid way. The idea of Howard embracing his fear and learning that he can be brave despite that fear would have been a good story, but then at the end we see that he's still trying to lie about how strong and cool he is, and he makes a joke about a nagging wife. Like... it's 2019. Can we not?

What a weird use of Ellen DeGeneres, too. I don't know that it's really a serious problem with the episode or anything, I just thought it was quite odd to see her. I couldn't tell if her lines were scripted by her writers, or The Big Bang Theory's writers, but they didn't have the general sparkle that she usually exhibits.

Supernatural: Game Night (14x17)

Well, shit.

Cons:

Let's start with a small thing - the special effect for Lucifer isn't really doing it for me. I guess I appreciate that they're making a unique choice, but to me, that black morass of evil with the glowing red eyes is not Lucifer. It's not the Lucifer that we've come to know as a villain over the years in this show. I actually don't have that big of a problem with bringing him back into the show. Since we know Season Fifteen is the end of the road for Supernatural, the only appropriate end-game villain is Lucifer. But the way they're visualizing his return doesn't match for me the energy and essence of who the character is.

I really like it when a Winchester gets hurt and the other one is all worried and scared, obviously. But I do have to lodge a complaint about how contrived the fights in this show can be sometimes. Sam and Dean have been hit in the head so many times it's insane, and usually they're banged up enough to make them disoriented in a fight, but there does not appear to be any lasting effects. Now, because the plot needs Sam and Dean to be out for the count while Jack deals with Nick, suddenly Sam has a head injury and he's actually dying. I wish they could find a way to be a bit less obvious about it!

Modern Family: Yes-Woman (10x19)

Sometimes when I watch this show I just have to ask myself... what are we doing here?

Cons:

I can't muster up even a smidge of enthusiasm for Jay, Gloria, and Manny's plot. The whole thing, along with Claire and Luke getting roped in, is supposed to be a big comedy of errors, where everyone misunderstands what everyone else is talking about. This show has pulled off that conceit successfully before, but it fell seriously flat for me here. I'm sorry, but it's 100% cringe, 0% funny to me that Claire is accidentally attracted to Luke's abs. There's really nothing redeemable about that moment for me. And all the double meanings didn't go anywhere satisfying. Jay was upset about his spot at the golf club being taken, but we didn't really see enough of that to understand it. Gloria is upset that Jay is letting himself go, but there was no resolution to that story beat either.

I really wanted to feel connected to Phil and Alex's plot thread, and I think ultimately on its own it was perfectly fine. But every time they actually address the fact that Alex is in school, I get so angry at how badly they flubbed her character development. For the last several seasons, she's been a college student, and they've only addressed it a handful of times. A casual viewer of this show, or even a not-so-casual viewer like me, who writes a review of it every week, might be forgiven for forgetting that Alex was still in school. It's insulting and annoying, especially when they did such a good job with Haley's pregnancy story all season.

The Walking Dead: The Storm (9x16)

That was not at all the episode I thought I was going to get, and I am 100% not complaining about it.

Cons:

I thought the Negan stuff was maybe a little bit on the nose. They're maybe making him too redeemed? I don't know. I have a lot to praise about Jeffrey Dean Morgan's performance, but the whole scenario felt like it was designed just for him to do something obvious that would make people hate him less.

This is a small note, but I was a little unclear on how much time passed after the Whisperer's attack, before the Kingdom was forced to evacuate. I think it was a couple of months? Not a huge deal in the scheme of things, but I would have liked a bit more clarity on how long they'd all been at the Kingdom after the tragedy occurred.

Pros:

Where to start? This episode did such a smart thing. I was expecting a big confrontation between the Whisperers and our heroes, and instead what I got was an episode where they were battling the elements, and dealing with their trauma. The Whisperers have migrated away, and obviously we can't be done with them at this point, but for now, the focus is on other things. That was such an intelligent thing to do. I usually don't trust this show to make smart decisions about the pacing, so I was delighted by what happened here.