Bob's Burgers: Stop! Or My Mom Will Sleuth! (13x13)

This was a cute one! I love when the family all gets in on shenanigans.

Cons:

Teddy's subplots have never been my favorite part of the show. I liked Bob sneaking around trying to gather intel about the Louise situation, but his scenes with Teddy working on a new business card were just okay. Even the song felt a little low-effort and energy. Not anything wrong with this plot, but nothing I'm really going to remember, either.

Pros:

I love when this show reminds us how much this family just straight-up likes each other. Louise and Linda had the bulk of the screen-time here, but I loved that Tina and Gene were both so happy to have their mom at school, planning ways to "secretly" wave hello to her, and saving her a seat at the lunch table. I get that it's a common experience for kids, especially someone Tina's age, to start being embarrassed by their parents, but it's nice to see an example on TV where for the most part that's not the case. None of the Belcher children are annoyed or worried about Linda being around. Even Louise is happy to jump in on conspiring in order to clear her name.

Grey's Anatomy: I'll Follow the Sun (19x07)

I'm not angry, I'm not even surprised, I'm just... disappointed?

Cons:

It feels like Grey's has been equivocating about Meredith's exit for a season and a half now. Is she moving away? No. Yes. No. And now, definitively, yes. And yet Meredith undercuts the solemnity of her own exit during the goodbye party, saying she's sure to be back from Boston soon anyway. That's the vibe I get from this. It's not that Meredith is really gone, gone. I have a strong suspicion that when it comes time for Grey's to hang up its hat for good, Ellen Pompeo will pop up for a final send-off in style. It's just... it's annoying that this is supposed to be a semi-permanent goodbye, it is the ending of Meredith Grey as main character of this show, and it's so... unceremonious. So little time is spent on her. The episode is full of other subplots, mundane and profound alike, and Meredith really didn't have a lot of time dedicated to her. People's exit episodes usually get a lot more gravitas to them, and it feels really cheap and disappointing and just... underwhelming in the extreme, that this is all Meredith gets for hers.

The biggest problem is that Nick fucking sucks, I hate him, I hate that this is the note we go off on, Meredith leaving with her kids, Nick trying to run frantically to the airport to tell her he loves her... like, I hope she says no. I hope she stays in Boston and Nick goes the fuck away and doesn't bother her anymore. The end of that. My blood was boiling during the scene where he was snapping at her about how she thought he was to blame for everything because he didn't say what he was supposed to say on her timetable. Shut the hell up, dude. That's Meredith Grey you're talking to, you're not worthy to be in her company!

Bob's Burgers: Oh Row You Didn't (13x12)

This is going to be a short one, apologies!

Cons:

I liked the story we did have, but I didn't find Gene's subplot about quitting origami club to be particularly funny. It tied into the main theme very well, but didn't offer many laughs of its own, if that makes sense.

The Legend of Vox Machina: The Hope Devourer (2x12)

I don't want to wait for more!!!

Cons:

Okay, to start, didn't really need the second shot of the dragon's innards and asshole. Like, we just saw it in the last episode, not sure what was added by showing it again. I'm not being a prude, it's just not a funny gag to me when we have to belabor the point! We get it, it's gross!

I have two "big" complaints here, and by "big" I mean that I absolutely adored this episode so, so, much and will be giving it high marks but these were just two things that kind of made me go "huh".

The Legend of Vox Machina: Belly of the Beast (2x11)

Another great episode, sorry to be a broken record!

Cons:

This whole show, I've been so impressed with their ability to get in all the most iconic lines I remember from the stream. Even if the circumstances changed, most of the epic dialogue has made it in. This was the first time I fully expected a line to be in a scene, and it didn't come. During the Scanlan and Kaylie scene, Scanlan said during the stream something along the lines of "of my many faults, ego is one of them. So now, knowing you're a part of me, makes me love you even more." It was a line so good that Matt gave him advantage on his persuasion check. I was sad it didn't make the cut! I feel like thematically it still would have worked. It's funny, but also it still works for the tone of the scene.

The immovable rod being replaced with a sword that Kaylie gives Scanlan is fine, but I wish there had been one line of dialogue somewhere to explain what the sword did, as it ends up being so pivotal later. Maybe I'm underestimating the viewers and it's completely understandable as is, just a small note.

The Legend of Vox Machina: The Killbox (2x10)

Goddamn, this show is something special.

Cons:

I'm not sure the utility of Kaylie coming back to witness the Kill Box fight. It feels like the exact same effect could have been achieved if Kaylie and the rest of the band had turned up after Kevdak's defeat, saying they'd gotten word that the herd was no longer going to be a problem. Having her around doesn't add anything, other than just a hint that she's trying to stay close to Scanlan for some reason, but I think that could have been achieved after the Kevdak battle.

The only complaint I have about the Kill Box fight sequence is that I wanted even more of it, which seems selfish because it was pretty incredible! I think the one thing that would have elevated it even just slightly, would be a bit more combo action. We saw each individual of Vox Machina fucking shit up, per Grog's instructions, and then obviously the awesome Vex and Grog combo there at the end, but my favorite part of the fight sequences is watching how all the different fighting styles and magics support and enhance one another. This fight had a lot of impressive single character actions, and then a lot of characters shooting a bad guy to protect each other, like Vex shooting bad guys near Percy and vice versa, which I obviously love, but I could have used some more combo creativity. This is such a nitpick though, it's only remembering the stream, how the Kill Box episode was one long combat from start to finish, and how fucking insane it was... when it ended here I was still eagerly wanting more.

The Legend of Vox Machina: Test of Pride (2x09)

Knowing that this batch of episodes contained the Fey Realm stuff, if someone would have told me the Westruun-only episode might be my favorite of the three, I wouldn't have believed them. But... this might be my favorite of the three! The glow-up that Scanlan, Grog, and Pike have all gotten as characters this season, from characters I loved because I already knew them from the stream, to fully realized creations in their own right... it's a beautiful thing to behold.

Cons:

I feel like the way Grog's backstory was framed was the slightest bit confusing, specifically as regarded Pike's knowledge of it. Where we land is that Pike knows how they first took Grog in, but didn't know the full extent of what Grog had been made to do with the herd. What's confusing is that in the flashback, younger Pike thanks Grog for what he did for her grandpa, but when present-day Pike is hearing the story of Grog sparing the old man's life, she says "Grandpa Wilhand?" like she's confused or this is brand new information. The backstory finishes with Pike being like "I never knew..." but yes she did, we just heard Pike thanking Grog for it in the past! I think this is just a small adjustment, where present-day Pike needed to make it clear that while she knew the basics, she never knew how bad things had really been.

I've got to say, I'm not really sure what to make of Ripley's involvement here. Is she going to come into play in some major way in this season? Are we going to get... you know... the culmination of Ripley's story... ahem... in the next three episodes? I kind of don't see how, since we've still gotta do the Kill Box and Umbrasyl. And if Ripley's just here to wave her hand and say "remember me, I'm Ripley and I'm still here", it feels a little odd. I don't know, we'll see. It's not like she's taking up a lot of our time, anyway.

The Legend of Vox Machina: The Echo Tree (2x08)

Ahhhh Percy and Vex my babiesssss.

Cons:

I've been thinking about the "Lady Vex'ahlia" moment and why I'm not 100% happy with this adaptation. I'm pretty happy, but there was something holding me back from loving it unconditionally. First of all, they changed the kicker line to: "Despite your relationship, do watch your manners towards a noble." Instead of just ending on "do watch your manners" which is stronger and cleaner. I think the point would have gotten across without adding the extra words. But more important than that, I think the atmosphere of how that happened on the stream was just so... intense, and memorable, because it was in front of a live audience, there were screams and applause, and you saw Laura's overwhelmed reaction. And Syldor was legitimately put off-balance by it. It was a blow that landed.

Here, I didn't need it to be a big huge mic-drop moment, I'm fine with it happening in only private company the way it would have from the stream version too. But I don't like the change that Syldor doesn't even hesitate before scoffing at it and saying it's just a stupid ploy. I wish he had been a little unsettled. I wish we'd seen him offended or confused or just... at all affected by the whole thing? He brushes off Percy's big grand gesture, and he brushes off Vex snapping at him, as if it doesn't matter at all. I get that there needs to be some build to something bigger, but I feel like it made the moment less fun because of it.

The Legend of Vox Machina: The Fey Realm (2x07)

If I've had one consistent complaint about this show all along it's been that I wanted a bit more downtime between the big, huge plot developments. And this batch of episodes gave me all the high-octane action and adventure I could want, and plenty of that slower character development stuff too! I'm so happy!

Cons:

This isn't specific to this episode, but I've been praising how all the various relationship dynamics have their little moments along the way, how impressed I am by the attention being given to all sorts of subtle dynamics in the background. For some reason, this episode made me realize that one relationship we've kind of lost out on in this season two is the Keyleth and Percy friendship. I hope we can get a moment or two with them coming up, or maybe some good stuff in season three.

For the most part I am really, really, pleased with the changes to Grog's story-line. However, from a pacing perspective, with regards to the fight to come with Kevdak and all that, I would have changed this around a bit. See, here what happens is that Grog makes his near-fatal error in stabbing Pike, and then immediately he overcomes the sword's influence and destroys it, then suffers consequences he needs to deal with in the aftermath. We know that coming up, he's going to have to face his evil and powerful uncle. In the stream, one of the things that was so cool about Travis's struggle with Grog was his desire to use Craven Edge during that fight: sort of a "one more time won't kill me" logic. In adapting it for animation, I think I would have kept the scene mostly the same, but not had Craven Edge actually destroyed: have it left somewhere, buried in rock or in a pocket plane or something. Then, when Grog is trying to muster up the courage to beat his uncle, have him reaffirm and hold to his choice to leave Craven Edge behind, because his strength lies elsewhere. It's a small thing, but I think the time between Grog realizing he needs to be rid of Craven Edge, and the time when Craven Edge is affirmatively destroyed/out of his reach forever, was too quick. There should have been one more step on that journey for him, in my opinion.