Doctor Who: Joy to the World (2024 Christmas Special)

I really really love Ncuti Gatwa in this role, y'all, he brings such an amazing energy to the Doctor... I wanna keep him for a long time...

Cons:

This is an extremely cheesy episode and honestly that's exactly what the doctor (hehe) ordered, but there was one moment that didn't work for me, and that was the ending with the Doctor literally saying "oh, I get it! You're joy!" Like, yeah, we get it, Doctor. We got it from Joy saying the same thing as she ascended to become a big light in the sky. It was this weird unnecessary repetition of the cheesy conclusion and I didn't need it quite so spelled out for me? Same with Joy's mom in the hospital literally saying Joy's name out loud as she saw the light. Again, trust the audience maybe a little bit more to get what you're doing without saying it all out loud!

Outlander: Hello, Goodbye (7x13)

After the high of the last few weeks of so much Lord John, I was bracing myself to be a little less invested in this week's installment. But it was another really strong showing!

Cons:

I used to harp on this a lot back in the old days and then it seemed pointless to keep bringing it up, but I should mention here once again that Sophie Skelton is the weak link acting-wise on this show. There's this moment when she's all offended at the sexist police implying that she might have been having an affair with Rob Cameron, but Skelton's acting is so weird in the scene that it actually seems like Brianna is lying about that? I don't know. It's unfortunate that she's not as strong a performer, so when the dialogue isn't stellar she can't carry it off like most of the others. Also, why doesn't Brianna at least tell them that Roger wants to steal money from them? Why hide that? I understand she can't tell the cops about hidden gold and time travel, but not providing any reason for Rob to kidnap her kid just made her look guilty as hell.

I really liked the stuff with Roger and his dad, it was genuinely moving. But I do wish that the end of this episode's moment of realization had been framed a little different. Here, it's presented like the idea that Jem isn't here in this time is something Roger is just now realizing. Even though surely he would have had suspicions about this from the second he realized that his father was here in the 1730s. I wish it had been framed more as "I've been thinking it for a while now but I was in denial..." rather than it being a new idea just occurring to Roger. Especially since we the audience know that Jem is in the 20th century already, so there's no bite to it.

What We Do in the Shadows: The Finale (6x11)

It's so wild to finish watching this finale and then hop over to Tumblr to see people lamenting and grieving for this epic queer-bait on one hand, and then other people throwing a party because Nandermo is canon now, and I'm just like... what show did you all think you were watching? lol. This was a fun finale.

Cons:

This finale cemented once and for all that the Guide was pretty useless as a character, and I hate saying that because I love the actress and I wanted her to have more to do. But her final character beat is that Cravensworth's Monster is really horny for her? The alternate ending where she's a detective on the case of the vampires was really funny, and it was the first solid bit they've given Kristen Schaal all season, and that bums me out. They even get in a last mention of Nandor's feelings for the Guide, which again goes nowhere and isn't funny or clever or interesting. So that's a bummer.

Also, I want to be careful here because there's all this extra weight put on finales to be some big thing that both shatters and preserves the status quo and that's an impossible standard to live up to, but, the one thing I do wish for was a bit of a resolution or at least an escalation on the whole "the vampires have fallen down on the job of conquering the new world" plot. It's just that the season started with that, and I didn't need some gigantic world-altering payoff, but some sort of circling back in a way that felt like things ended with a bit of momentum into the nebulous future might have been nice? Not the end of the world, but whatever.

Bob's Burgers: Dog Christmas Day After Afternoon (15x09)

Christmas chaos with the Belchers! I love it.

Cons:

It's another story where Louise has to learn not to be selfish, and give something up so someone else can have a good experience - I love this story, but I have seen it a bunch of times on this show. I almost wish Gene had been the one to bond with the puppy, since it was his chocolate misadventure that started the whole thing, and then we could have a Gene-centric plot, which almost never happens

Pros:

The basic conceit of this one is that the kids really want a handheld video game console of some sort, and Bob and Linda can't afford it, leading to a crestfallen Christmas morning. I loved the bit about the kids remembering all their super obvious hints to their parents, and then the parents remembering all their super obvious hints that it wasn't going to happen - but of course, Christmas hope rings eternal, and the kids don't listen to their parents when they talk...

Outlander: Carnal Knowledge (7x12)

You ever watch an episode of TV and actively cackle at the events playing out on your screen? I have been in full-on cackle mode for this entire plot thread of this show. It's everything I could have asked for.

Cons:

So, I think sometimes this show's acting is stronger than its writing, by which I mean a stellar performance from Sam Heughan can often elevate a clunky line of exposition, or the genuine passion in Caitriona Balfe's face can elevate an otherwise cheesy moment in dialogue. That remains the case in this situation as well, but there have been a few moments in Jamie's dialogue specifically that felt kind of awkward. It happened last week when he was explaining about not being on the Euturpe, and it happened again this week when he's explaining to John about why he has soldiers chasing him. Just super clunky moments where he's having to lay out basic tenants of the plot for the audience that don't feel naturalistic.

What We Do in the Shadows: The Promotion (6x10)

Aww! This was so great!

Cons:

This show doesn't have a lot of consistency/follow-through from earlier elements, and I do find myself wishing that there would be an acknowledgment of Laszlo raising Colin Robinson from a baby. There's this whole thread with Cravensworth's Monster this season, where the two of them are basically co-parenting, and it would be funny to tie back that earlier father/son dynamic to what's happening now. But there's never any mention of it, which I just think is a missed opportunity!

This isn't really a complaint about this episode, but rather a fervent hope for the finale next week... I hope that the documentary gets a proper payoff, even in some small way. The moment where Jordan is trying to call "cut" at the end felt like it needed a punch-up, a bit more of a grand reveal about the documentary that's been in progress for such a long time. I guess we'll see if they have a good final bit about this next week!

Bob's Burgers: They Slug Horses, Don't They? (15x08)

Aww, sister episode!

Cons:

I thought the flashback about Linda and Gayle was kind of gilding the lily, this episode would probably have worked just lovely without that added context spelled out for us? I almost rather would have just had Gayle explain the story to the kids maybe with a bit of flashback happening then, rather than structuring it so that we saw it earlier, if that makes sense. A small nitpick!

Pros:

The basic premise here is just that Louise and Tina are fighting about their toys. But the real fight is about their roles in the family - Tina as the good responsible one, Louise as the mean brat. Louise resents that: she was being thoughtless with Tina's possessions, but she didn't mean to break her horse. Both of their feelings are really hurt because Tina thinks Louise thinks she's boring, and Louise thinks Tina thinks she's a screw-up. I liked that the outer surface of siblings fighting over their belongings was actually about a deeper insecurity in their relationship, that worked really well!

Outlander: A Hundredweight of Stones (7x11)

It really is the best shit in the whole series, no joke...

Cons:

The one bigger thing I was noticing in this episode was that it was lacking a sense of time passing - it was unclear to me how long it had been since news of Jamie's death reached them - how many days between then and the wedding, how many days later are they going to that dinner party, how many days later does Jamie show up? Because it kind of feels like it happens within a week, but I remember it was a bit longer in the book. This also contributed to some strangeness of pacing in that big final scene, where Jamie shows up and clumsily explains that his luggage was on the Euturpe but he himself was not. So much of that final scene was lifted from the book entirely, and it's a great scene, don't get me wrong, but it all happened kind of choppy and strange. I think we get some time in Jamie's POV in the books or something, so we have a bit more context for why he's being chased by soldiers? But maybe I'm misremembering.

What We Do in the Shadows: Come Out and Play (6x09)

I liked this one!

Cons:

So, back to the Guide/Nandor thing - I think I realized my core issue here. It feels like a potentially funny subplot that would happen in a single episode, but stretched out over the full season until it feels threadbare and irritating. Like, the bit where Nandor dramatically offers to die for the Guide, or the Guide letting him down easy and Nandor spacing out staring at her eyes, those were perfectly funny bits. But they come after multiple false starts that suggest a story and then never capitalize on it. The Guide has said her piece now, but it seems like Nandor hasn't gotten the memo, so are we just going to keep limping through jokes about them for the last few episodes of the show? It feels like they don't actually have good funny ideas with this plot thread and I am increasingly sure that the payoff won't be worth the setup, whatever it is. I wish "Nandor has a crush on the Guide" had been the plot of a single episode, basically. That could have worked.

Outlander: Brotherly Love (7x10)

Lord John! He's here! My bestest friend!

Cons:

When I was looking back over my reviews of the earlier half of this season, I saw how much flip-flopping I did about Rachel and Ian's relationship. In this episode, I did rather like the romance moment they had together. But I do need to reiterate my dissatisfaction with the Arch Bug plot thread. In the books it honestly feels kind of random and extraneous too, but in the show especially so - the fact that Rachel is held at knife-point and William shoots and kills a man in this episode feels so... random and unmotivated and out of scope for everything else the story is trying to do? Especially since, for the viewer of the show, the stuff with Ian killing Arch Bug's wife happened ten million years ago.

Not to be all "in the books" again, but... in the books, Claire takes on the role of rebel spy through her own initiative and successfully passes messages around many times before finally being suspected. It felt a little silly that she's discovered instantly her very first time out, when ostensibly there would have been no reason for everyone to abruptly suspect her at that point. Another book change is not having Fergus and his family around at this stage in the story. I've re-read John telling Claire about the Euturpe so many times that I remember vividly she's got some of her grandchildren underfoot at the time, and John's appeal to Claire is about saving Fergus and Marsali and the kids specifically, along with their other rebel friends. I don't mind the changes on principle, but I am sad because I always want to see Fergus.

What We Do in the Shadows: P.I. Undercover: New York (6x08)

This was a very funny one!

Cons:

There's a structural weirdness this season. A-plot stuff was set up early on and then nothing has come of it since. I think I'm noticing it as an issue more because this is the final season, so it feels like if we're building to something, we should make sure we have the time to fully explore it. So the stuff with their old roommate who's back from his nap and working with the Guide, it just feels odd that we spend so little time exploring that. And subplots like Lazlo's reanimated corpse seem to have stalled out as well. We'll see where it's all going, I'm just looking at the number of episodes we have left and feeling a little anxious...

Bob's Burgers: Boogie Days (15x07)

Aw, some bonding time for Bob and Louise! I love it!

Cons:

I think I could have used a final beat in the Teddy subplot to show him having turned around on the birthday party thing. Our final moment with him is him being bad at telling left from right and giving confusing instructions, but it didn't seem like he was ever reconciled to having the party thrown for him. Could have had some good comedy potential there, with either him turning around and being suddenly really enthusiastic, or him blowing up at Linda and storming out, and the others all continuing to have his party without him. Either way, something bigger might have been nice!

Outlander: Unfinished Business (7x09)

We're back, at long last! It's been a million years!

Cons:

It's not the actress's fault, but I did find the re-casting of Jenny to be distracting. The reunion vibes, and the tension between Claire and Jenny, all that stuff - it just didn't pack the same punch because it was some random woman I'd never seen before in my life, you know?

Also, I'll wait until next week to judge, but I feel like this show is always lacking in the Ian Sr. and Jamie relationship. It makes sense that a great deal of time goes to Young Ian's reunion with his dying father, but I could have used more of Jamie and Ian together as brothers, here. A more emotionally poignant moment of return, the laird back in Lallybroch and seeing the man who maintains it for him.

Grey's Anatomy: Drop It Like It's Hot (21x08)

A funny time of year to be watching an episode about a heatwave! This episode had some real old-school Grey's vibes for me, in a way I really liked.

Cons:

If Owen cheats on Teddy with that random lady he was flirting with waiting for car repair, I am going to sue ABC lol. Please, enough already! Honestly I think Dr. Open Marriage should go ahead and seduce Teddy and Owen both, drag her husband into the mix, Maybe Teddy and Owen would calm the fuck down if they were having fun extramarital sex. Or even group sex, let's do this fucking thing. Instead we have this insufferable moment where Owen sees Dr. Beckman giving Teddy a comforting and innocent touch on the arm in the elevator, and he gets all weirded out. Yeesh, I'm so tired of them.

I feel like there's a weird disconnect with Yasuda leaving in this episode. Jules is devastated and acts like it's this big final thing, but like... is she moving away forever? When your co-worker and girlfriend stops being your co-worker, that doesn't mean she's going to vanish from your life in an instant. I wonder what we'll find out about Yasuda after the hiatus. Is she just quietly moving away in the gap between episodes, or will it be a slower phase-out, like maybe we hear about her still being around for a while and then she comes back to guest for one more episode when she does finally move away or something? I don't know. I just felt like the stakes of this being a goodbye episode for the character were a little murky.

What We Do in the Shadows: March Madness (6x07)

Let's jump right in!

Cons:

So, if we're doing this Guide/Nandor thing, fine, I guess. It feels pretty unmotivated and lazy to me but okay! But then if we're going to do this, let's do this. The two characters haven't really interacted on screen, and in this episode it's just Nandor being encouraged to be brave and tell her how he feels, and then nothing comes of it? I guess I just think... if you want to use this idea as a vector for comedy, can we at least see some jokes being told about it?

With the knowledge that this show's ending is creeping up on us, I do wish I felt like this episode furthered Guillermo's plot a little more. It seems like it's just another episode reinforcing him as a loyal sycophant. The stuff with Colin was funny, but the episode ends with Guillermo happy and excited to be serving these new masters. I want him to like... foment a revolution, or quit, or something dramatic. Hopefully we'll get to see that soon.

Grey's Anatomy: If You Leave (21x07)

Oh man, this is so sad...

Cons:

I feel like going into this season knowing Yasuda would be leaving at some point, it just really made the stuff with Chloe feel strange and awkwardly placed? You introduce a whole subplot with a sister who has cancer, you make that be the reason why the Yasuda/Jules romance isn't fully lifting off, you set it up as a way for Mika to maybe leave the show to take care of her sister, then you do a big scary car accident but Mika doesn't die... and then Chloe does? I understand drama for drama's sake, that's what this show is built around! But it just felt like a lot of setup for the payoff to be so tragic and then Mika's going to leave anyway? I guess we'll see how it all plays out, but I kind of wish this was setup for a character to deal with their grief, instead of setup for a character to depart.

I guess I'm glad Owen apologized to Teddy for his big overreaction but also, just, ugh - every second spent on their relationship feels like a waste of my time as a viewer. Not to be harsh or anything.

What We Do in the Shadows: Lazlo's Father (6x06)

A pretty good episode, but probably not one of my favorites?

Cons:

The recurring gag of Nandor having a crush on the Guide still just feels really unmotivated for me. I swear this isn't a shipping thing, the whole Nandermo thing is something I enjoy thinking about but I don't have a lot of hope that the show will actually deliver on. But even setting that aside, it just feels out of nowhere and not very funny for Nandor to have this crush on the Guide, a character who hasn't been around most of the season and when she does pop up, has nothing really to do? I don't know.

Pros:

I enjoy the groupings this season, where Nandor, Nadja, and Guillermo are often connected in one of the plots together. It's a fun dynamic. Their subplot, with their misunderstanding about an AirBNB, and then the plot twist that shapeshifters actually are involved, was pretty great. Guillermo as exasperated explainer of basic human things is a joke that never gets old. And I love them accidentally stumbling into preferential treatment, as their neighbor is worried she'll get in trouble for operating an unlicensed AirBNB.

Bob's Burgers: Hope N' Mic Night (15x06)

This was a lovely episode!

Cons:

Honestly, cannot think of anything I would want to change with this one!

Pros:

This episode does what I think Bob's Burgers is best at doing, which is mirroring some really silly ideas with the warmth and comfort of familiarity. We know these people, this community, and seeing them come together to make art for one another was honestly a balm to the soul? Sometimes this show doesn't quite live up to the promises it makes, so I was slightly worried that something would happen to interrupt the open mic night and we wouldn't actually get to see many of the performances, but no - we got a ton of great stuff, and it all felt very warm and cozy and like this is a real place with a real community of people who can come together to do something nice. Just really needed to see that on this day, I think!

Grey's Anatomy: Night Moves (21x06)

Oh boy, this was a REAL roller-coaster of an episode for me, a lot I really loved and a lot that made me roll my eyes. I am obviously having an emotionally challenging week for reasons I don't even really want to write down, in the hopes that some day in the far future I can look back and read this and not know what I was even talking about... but because of that, I was liable to be really emotionally affected by what was happening on my screen. Let's talk about it.

Cons:

Owen and Teddy continue to suck in this really frustrating way where it just seems like they're willfully refusing to understand each other? They don't really come across as people who have been super close for such a long time, they come across completely disconnected and off. Like, Owen's reaction to Teddy's news about being kissed was super annoying, but also Teddy's method of telling him was WAY off. She should have approached it with a bit more seriousness given that she's the one who has a history of cheating within their relationship. She should have been like "hey, I want to tell you about what happened, it wasn't a big deal but I want to be fully honest..." instead, she just shot it off like a joke and it felt tonally very strange. She really couldn't have seen it coming that he'd react badly to that?

What We Do in the Shadows: Nandor's Army (6x05)

I really am loving all the Nandor and Guillermo stuff this season...

Cons:

Honestly, I can't really think of particular cons on this one, other than one punchline didn't quite hit in terms of the dialogue. When Nandor's real army turns up at the end, it was really funny and it totally made me smile! But then there's this immediate reaction shot from Guillermo and he has a line like "What? Nandor's army is real?" and then later an interview cut with Nandor where he says "of course the dummies were just for practice! What, did you think my army was really just a bunch of dummies?" Not exact quotes, but pretty close. And those two lines just felt like... telling instead of showing? Like it was the most uninteresting way to reinforce the obvious joke to the audience, and I found it odd that those lines didn't get a little more juice. Honestly, you didn't need dialogue from Guillermo at all, just an incredulous look. And Nandor's bit would have been funnier if he'd been talking to Lazlo and Nadja, who then would have to react in the moment and insist they hadn't thought he was crazy enough to have an army of mannequins, of course not... This is ultimately a small point, but it felt like the shell of the joke was there and they didn't fill it in well.

Bob's Burgers: Don't Stop Be-cheesin (15x05)

Another fun one!

Cons:

There were SO much shenanigans in the kid's plot that I could have used slightly more shenanigans back at the diner with Linda's training to be a better eavesdropper! It was fun, what we got, but Bob and Teddy teaming up to tell Linda she sucks at something is a fun dynamic that we don't see as much, and I could have used even more of it.

Pros:

The main plot was just full of chaos from start to finish, and I loved it. Tina doesn't want to play this crazy cheese-throwing game, but she gets roped into it when she realizes she's the odd man out and everyone else is in it to win it. At first she's just the weak link on Jimmy Jr.'s team, but when everyone else on the team gets taken out by someone who's apparently some sort of cheese throwing prodigy... she becomes their last best hope! Throughout the episode, Tina makes it surprisingly far not getting knocked out, following advice from Louise about how to be sneaky and covert.

What We Do in the Shadows: The Railroad (6x04)

Sean Rinaldi, how I love you.

Cons:

There's this little moment at the start where it seems like Nandor is crushing on the Guide? Now, I'm always complaining that they don't know what to do with the Guide character, and this episode is no exception... so maybe this could be funny or interesting? Maybe it's just a continuation from the hypnosis. It just seems kind of random and uninspired to me, though. Honestly, that goes for Jerry as well - he's here at the start of the episode to continue the whole "taking over America" plan, but it doesn't really go much of anywhere and this character hasn't really had much to do since his introduction in the first episode of the season. I guess we'll see if it all pays off!

Bob's Burgers: For Whom the Doll Toes (15x04)

This was a fun one!

Cons:

I did like this episode, but I did think it was slightly lacking as a Halloween special - I like seeing the kids in their costumes and all the shenanigans that usually happen on Halloween night!

I also thought the Teddy subplot lacked a bit of pizzazz. I liked the setup for it - Teddy's been working on his grip strength with all these hand and wrist exercises, and when he sees that the restaurant is closed all morning, he decides to while away the time with a lot of his exercises so he can impress Bob. The part that was lacking from my perspective was the part after Teddy's hands cramp up. I feel like there could have been a few more jokes made around Teddy not being able to close his hands, other than just that he struggled to make a phone call.

Grey's Anatomy: You Make My Heart Explode (21x05)

Teddy and Owen are so annoyyyyyingggg...

Cons:

I'm sad for no Yasuda this week because I know we're losing her soon. I wonder if we're just phasing her out right now with not much more content to follow. It's a bummer.

Lucas and Simone have a romantic moment in this episode and while nothing was super annoying about their scene, I do just want to lodge my familiar statement that they bore me. Just so that's on the record.

Owen and Teddy are not fun to watch. In one sense they are realistically like an old married couple, but only in all the worst ways. Owen is such a whiner, and Teddy is so rude to him, and they both rather unprofessionally let it carry over into their working relationship, and then Richard has to do a Wise Old Man routine and talk to Teddy about it, and Owen has to remember how to be romantic and connect with her so they don't have to schedule sex... it's just so tedious. Better, I suppose, than the kind of melodrama that makes me hate the characters with a fiery passion, but worse than if they'd just fade quietly into the background and walk off of the show while nobody's watching. I can't believe these are the characters that are sticking around, and not Schmitt and Yasuda.

The Legend of Vox Machina: Souls in Darkness (3x12)

As a not-so-secret Percy/Vax enjoyer, even though I do ship the canon ships more... this episode made me very happy.

Cons:

Okay, remember when I did the big paragraph in episode nine about Pike's whole deal with the Everlight? In this episode we get this line: "sometimes you should go against the wishes of your deity. After all, the gods didn't create us to blindly obey them, right?" And that sentiment is fine with me, that makes a lot of sense as a conclusion a character could come to on her faith journey. But... why did she literally throw away the Everlight symbol when facing down Thordak? That moment doesn't seem to actually lead to this one! I'm really hoping that season four can give us a bit more clarity on how we're supposed to view Pike's relationship to the Everlight. I'm fine with them making strong choices, but right now it feels kind of directionless and unspecific.

The Legend of Vox Machina: Deadly Echoes (3x11)

Ah, yes, okay. So this is what I was kind of afraid of? Let's talk about it.

Cons:

I mentioned earlier in this season that there are always going to be Those Moments for each viewer that they feel especially attached to, and those ones are going to be harder to handle when they change in the stream. I've been really lucky up until now that most of what I was most excited to see, I did get to see in some form or other! But this episode was a two for one special of moments I loved from the stream not happening in the show. I actually understand both changes and I don't think they're flaws with the show, but they are personal disappointments for me specifically, so I do need to talk about them just a bit.

One is Scanlan's resurrection. They pivoted his death into a coma which I think was smart, but I just... man, I remember the whole gang gathered around doing a ritual to wake him up, and I remember Kaylie being there to help too by playing a song. And I especially remember the aftermath. They have really, really changed Scanlan's arc this season. It felt like they were leading up to a certain incident pretty heavy with the foreshadowing in the last two seasons, and then here the impetus for Bard's Lament exists but its emotional context has been altered significantly. I'm on record being totally fine with big changes, and I'm glad they didn't try and squeeze in Scanlan being angry with the group for getting Kaylie involved, since there's just not much time left in the season to delve into it. But overall, the animated series makes the characters... less messy. I miss seeing a version of this where Scanlan is in a really dark, fucked up place and it's not as simple as Kaylie telling him she wants a relationship with him. In the stream, it was a lot more convoluted than that, and I do miss that.

The Legend of Vox Machina: To the Ends of the World (3x10)

Wow, okay, interesting!

Cons:

Do we think this is the most the show has ever deviated from the stream? I don't mean in the sense of anything particularly major happening that is just straight-up new for the show, but in the sense that this episode isn't... based on a cohesive set of incidents that played out on stream, it's really a lot that's totally new! I am putting this under "Cons" not because I think it's bad in and of itself, but I did want to mention that this season is making me realize, for better or for worse, that a fair percentage of my enjoyment of this show is the adaptation aspect, seeing how they chose to move things around and still hit all the important moments. Up until this season, even with all they did change, I never felt like a core moment I really enjoyed from the stream got dropped entirely, even if it did move around. This episode makes me pretty trepidatious that the Ripley kill is going to the twins alone, and that will mark the first time a major moment I was looking forward to from the stream simply won't be in the show at all. But we shall see!

What We Do in the Shadows: Sleep Hypnosis (6x03)

This was delightfully chaotic!

Cons:

I feel like I said this a lot in last season's reviews, but the Guide feels generally useless as a character. I hadn't even really noticed that she hadn't been around much in these first few episodes. I really wish they could give this character something cooler to do! The actress is so funny!

Pros:

This was my favorite of the three episodes so far. I just really loved the premise. It feels very classically sitcom-ish in that it has one central conceit and it runs wild with it. The subplot and main plot don't really have distinction, it's the whole gang all caught up in the hypnosis situation, but just coming at it from different angles. Colin as the instigator here really made me laugh! His wall where he's got everything all mapped out and shows how he's losing ground in the group dynamic was so silly. I love that he positions himself as the lone man out, because previously there were two united pairs in the house - Lazlo and Nadja, and then Nandor and Guillermo. Pretty insightful of you, Colin Robinson...

What We Do in the Shadows: Headhunting (6x02)

Poor Guillermo, what chaos!

Cons:

I was a little less locked into Lazlo and Colin's plot thread this week, which involves Lazlo rededicating himself to his project of creating life out of the dead. He refuses to acknowledge the Frankenstein comparison, but he is indeed successful in creating his own Cravensworth's monster. The comedy of Colin and Lazlo trying to deal with this situation was perfectly adequate, but nothing super special. I was mostly just wanting to go back to the other plot when we were in this one.

What We Do in the Shadows: The Return of Jerry (6x01)

I'm going to try and move super quickly since we've got three of these to go through!

Cons:

I kind of wish Guillermo wasn't starting off at such a low point, since I think it's sort of funnier if he has his life together and Nandor is just bewildered by his competence... but that may be a personal preference thing.

Colin being over-fed on misery and gaining weight just isn't that funny to me, I'm trying to think if I've ever found putting an actor in a fat suit amusing...

Bob's Burgers: Colon-ly the Dronely (15x03)

A very fun episode!

Cons:

I think the kids' plot thread was my least favorite, though it had some good things too! For me, there's maybe a bit of repetitiveness with Louise's character that has been grating on me in recent seasons. I've seen a lot of stories now where Louise has an idea, she's being selfish about it, and then she decides to concede for the good of the group, because she does actually have a heart after all. It's a cute story, but sometimes I want Louise to lean in and be a lot more chaotic than she ends up being.

Pros:

That said, I did like seeing more of the school gang, and it's cute how the other kids did all follow along with Louise's plan until she finally releases them from the obligation. They still accomplish their stated goal of messing with the drone footage of the school, but they also get to do the silly fun thing they want to do as kids. I loved the Belcher children coming home and immediately showing it to their parents, knowing they won't get in trouble even though they were messing with something they shouldn't have been.

Grey's Anatomy: This One's for the Girls (21x04)

This one's for the girls, is it? Which girls is this one supposed to be for? This girl is not particularly gripped.

Cons:

The amount of I Don't Give A Shit I was feeling when we get to that ending and Jo and Link are having twins? Godddd I don't care! I want to go back in time and make these two never fall in love, because it's putting me to sleep! Same with Teddy and Owen talking about how they need a chance to connect because work is keeping them so busy. It's not the most insufferable angst I've ever experienced from these two, but it's still not all that interesting.

Also... I didn't mind the story about Mika's sister in and of itself, but it's a bit hard to swallow when I know we'll be saying goodbye to this character soon. Is this what sunsets her off the show? She quits her job to take care of her sick sister? I mean... that's fine, I guess, but it's just a bummer to take up screen time with a new character here when we already know we have so little time left with Yasuda.

The Legend of Vox Machina: Thordak's Throne (3x09)

Oh shit, I can't believe they did that. And by that I mean... well, I'll talk about it in a bit.

Cons:

I have one small and one kind of medium-large complaint to lodge here before we go into how much I really did adore this episode.

Okay, obviously Travis broke my heart with his line delivery on "can you fix him? Please, you gotta fix him." But I do kind of miss his original improvised version that had more heat to it. The bellowed "FIX HIM" lives in my head rent free and we didn't get that here. Small nitpick, this version also tore out my heart, but thought I'd mention that. The thing about Grog is that he's our big lovable dummy, but the other thing about Grog is that he can be scary sometimes, even to the people he loves most.

Then there's the bigger thing. Pike's big moment was like... well, I'm not like, super angry, really, it's more of a "let's see where they're going with this thing", I guess. I have thoughts. Honestly, the stuff with Pike and the Everlight in this show has always been kind of muddy to me, and a plot progression where Pike finds strength in herself instead of in her goddess is totally fine with me in theory. But I thought in the past seasons the setup was more like... her faith as an anchor to her own strength. Or believing that she is deserving of the Everlight's favor and that thus the power she wields is her own, but the goddess is her supporter as much as Pike is a follower of her goddess? Like, does that make any sense? Pike having a complicated but ultimately loving relationship with her deity is what I was looking for here. That image of her actually throwing aside the Everlight's symbol was kind of... Not It, for me. I wish it had been more like "It's not just the Everlight's magic, and it's not just the Dawnfather's armor. It's me, who I am, being worthy to wield the powers they offer." That's the nuance I would have wanted here.

The Legend of Vox Machina: Siege and Silence (3x08)

Oh boy oh boy. I'm hyped for episode nine, I must say.

Cons:

A couple of things in this episode made previous episode aspects in this season a little frustrating. The main one is how the Scanlan situation was handled... like, I don't mind him leaving and then coming back, conflicted about where he belongs - that makes sense as an adaptation change from what we saw in the campaign. But the solemnity with which he left, the silent goodbye to Pike, it felt so... charged, and specific, and then it led to nothing in this moment other than him not being around when Percy died. And there's no specific indication that he could have done anything to help in that instance, either. I think if I could go back into episode six and change something, it would be that Scanlan would tell the group straight out - I need to go and find my daughter and have a real talk with her. And then the group could be a little disappointed but tell him to go. And then when he turns up again and everything's gone to shit, it doesn't feel quite so pointless of a detour? Maybe I'm just a little annoyed at Scanlan's emotional arcs being siloed into scenes with just Pike or Kaylie, and none of the rest of Vox Machina getting involved at all.

The Legend of Vox Machina: Cloak and Dagger (3x07)

My heart hurts! I've been waiting to get here!

Cons:

Small thing: I feel like I haven't heard anyone calling Keyleth by her full name all season! It's like... always Kiki. I liked that better when it was an occasional thing.

Big thing: What was that song at the end, when Vex is running to Percy? Like... that is the first time the music on this show has missed hard, and it's such a bummer that it happened over such an intense moment. I was scratching my head wondering how they could have ended up with such a tonally awkward and lyrically basic song here. They've always been so good about the music in the past! The song felt symptomatic of something I was noticing throughout this episode, that the dialogue was a little too on the nose and didn't allow for the audience to come to its own conclusions. Everything with Ripley and her motivations, and Percy choosing mercy over vengeance, it just felt a little more one-note than I would have expected, and that song was the capstone to it all in the worst possible way. It may be the single thing in this entire show so far that I've liked the least. A big, big miss in my opinion.

Grey's Anatomy: I Can See Clearly Now (21x03)

Hey, happy to report that Catherine didn't bug me too much in this one! It's hard to be too annoyed with someone who's in such a vulnerable position, I suppose.

Cons:

Richard, on the other hand... dude, what gives! Him snapping at Meredith for... not breaking HIPAA was a weird look. I understand being hurt and conflicted, but his scolding attitude was way out of line. Shame on you, Richard, not shame on Meredith!

Lucas and Simone's relationship is just utterly boring to me, and the avenues for drama between them are icky and unoriginal. You've got Lucas angsting about repeating his intern year, then you've got Simone accusing him of getting surgeries through nepotism. It's just... ugh. I'm not really vibing with any of it. It's a shame, because once again I feel like Simone went from being a real favorite, to being kind of consumed by the romance plot line and not getting a ton else to chew on as a character.

The Legend of Vox Machina: The Coming Storm (3x06)

Oh boy... it's happening, y'all, we're going after Ripley...

Cons:

Okay. Okay. So, the Scanlan situation. I'm not angry, I'm just a little scared. This isn't a... "instead of Bard's Lament" situation, is it? Like, I hope he goes and talks with Kaylie, makes her the promise that he won't get killed and will always comes back, then goes and joins the gang in the final dragon fights? I don't know. Right now I'm feeling a little bit of anxiety and sadness at the thought that he might not be there for the Glintshore fight? There's a moment in that fight in the stream where I can just hear Sam's voice saying something and it's so powerful and such an intense moment and I will definitely miss it if he's not there. I guess I'm just biting my nails over future changes rather than actually addressing what happens in this episode, though. More specifically, I thought it was weird that Scanlan decided he needed to go find Kaylie, and then instead of just telling the group or figuring out the best way to approach his various responsibilities, he backed out without a word or moment with anybody but Pike, abandoning his friends.

The Legend of Vox Machina: The Frigid Wastes (3x05)

I might have a bit of a hot take about this one! Buckle up.

Cons:

This is a small thing, but shouldn't the episode be called "The Frigid Doom"? I loved that the Umbrasyl fight episode was called "The Hope Devourer." It feels like it's breaking the precedent. And I wonder if we'll have "The Cinder King" and "The Diseased Deceiver" as episode names coming up later? It doesn't matter, but I just wondered!

So, my hot take. I really loved this episode, I think it holds up in quality with the season and the show in general, I think it's wonderful as per usual. BUT, I think this section, where we're having more and more significant changes from the original canon, is bringing up some question marks for me here and there. I was a little startled in the last third of this episode to realize that yes, we were killing Vorugal in this installment. I had sort of thought that maybe he'd harass them and get away, and we'd have the real death in episode six or something. The reason I thought this is that Vorugal being in a position to kill felt kind of too... random and lucky? I really missed the planning aspect. The goristro v. dragon showdown in the campaign was one of the most clever moments of forethought that Vox Machina ever had. Here, it was just sort of a happy accident, and that was a little bit of a letdown.

The Legend of Vox Machina: Hell to Pay (3x04)

Another great episode, turns out!

Cons:

This is going to be a bit difficult to articulate but it almost felt like we were missing a narrative beat somewhere before Pike and Zerxus began their card game. We know that there's a vestige, we know that the vestige is supposed to be instrumental in defeating Thordak, we know the stakes are high to get it... but it's also just a mostly abstract tool at this point. The others have powerful vestiges, is one more vestige worth the eternal damnation of not only Pike but also all her friends? I think I was missing a beat where the group seriously contemplates turning around and leaving, and then there's one more nudge as to why this is worth the astronomical price of failure. I also felt like it was a little silly that J'Mon apparently sent them down to Hell with absolutely no context or warning other than "this one dude has the armor, go get it." Wouldn't they have gone in a bit more prepared to have to offer something in return?

Bob's Burgers: Saving Favorite Drive-In (15x02)

This was a fun one!

Cons:

I expected there to be a punchline to Teddy bringing his sleeping mother: at fist I thought it wasn't actually her, just a doll he'd set up so it didn't seem like he was coming alone, or something. But then we find out that she woke up and Teddy runs off to avoid her. I don't know, could have used a bit more with this one.

Pros:

I thought all three Belcher family plots were excellent! It's always a joy to see Bob getting passionate and excited about something. The flashbacks to teenage Bob and the girl he had one magical might of talking to, were really sweet, and gave an emotional grounding to why he wants to save the drive-in. He then actually follows through with a plan and has a decent idea with the help of the kid running the concession stand. Sure, in the end it turns out that the owner of the drive-in doesn't want to save it, and that Bob's memories will have to live on after the drive-in is closed... but it's still sweet that he put in all the effort!

Grey's Anatomy: Take Me to Church (21x02)

You know how annoyed I have to be about a plot line for me to be on Teddy's side about something?

Cons:

Sometimes it just legitimately feels as if this show is punking me with the character of Catherine Fox. There was no real mention in this whole episode about her bullshit treatment of everyone else. Oh, Teddy and Owen are back at the hospital, and Amelia still has a job, and we're just kind of not talking about Meredith's research here... because Catherine is maybe dying. It's just so tedious! Do you want me to feel anger and frustration because Catherine is so fucking ridiculous and unreasonable, or do you want me to feel tender and sad about her health? Because I'm feeling the former, and I'm not feeling the latter, sorry!

Winston, I love you, but please stop trying to discourage Richard from stepping down. This dude needs to get out of the OR and away from this hospital! I love Richard, but my GOODNESS, they've run out of things to do with his character in a major way. I also just continue to not give a crap about Lucas Adams, and I find the actor kind of irritating? He's got that Disney Channel teenage-heartthrob vibe, and it's kind of cloying. I don't know if that makes any sense, but that's how I see it. He has that icky combination of being incredibly privileged but then also feeling constantly sorry for himself. I'm with Simone on this one; when she brought up the possibility of him being an intern again while the rest of them advance, and asking if it's going to cause issues, I think she's dead-on. I'm already dreading watching that play out. Please spare me.

The Legend of Vox Machina: Vexations (3x03)

I have a feeling people are going to have VERY strong opinions about a couple of things in this episode!

Cons:

I want to start with a small thing that I haven't seen people talking about, but that bothered me probably an unreasonable amount. When the gang is together in Draconia and they're discussing their trip to Hell, they decide to split up so that someone can be on the other side to guard the pathway back out. Kima, Allura, Vex, and Percy end up staying while the rest of Vox Machina go through the portal. And this moment of separation featured no significant looks or goodbyes or angst or worry at all, really! I can't believe Vax didn't have parting words for Vex, or anything. It was a strange moment because it's ultimately a small detail, but I really noticed the lack of ceremony given to it. It kind of downplayed the dangers of Hell, how casual they were about separating and going there.

The Legend of Vox Machina: Prisoners of Ank'Harel (3x02)

Shit, the Scanlan stuff that I assume is coming at the end of this season is going to fuck me up.

Cons:

Still slightly questioning the Vax/Keyleth angle here, I really kind of loved how in the campaign she was the one with all the doubts. But I'm trying to give it a chance this way, too! It's not like this is a bad story to tell about the two of them, it's just not the story I expected.

The Legend of Vox Machina: A Deadly Bargain (3x01)

We're so back!!!!

Cons:

Okay, it feels too early to be making any comments on bigger structural/adaptation changes, but I'm just noting things as I experience them. The biggest moment I questioned in this episode was Vax and Keyleth's moment at the tree. They kiss, which is so sweet! And then Vax has a vision of Keyleth being old and alone as all of her friends are dead. That moment had a kind of cognitive dissonance to it, because... shouldn't that be Keyleth's baggage, not Vax's? Or, at the very least, shouldn't they both be thinking about it? I get it, a champion of a death god and a druid who's going to live for centuries, there's inherent angst here. I love that shit. But I really thought the image of Keyleth living on while her friends all die was going to be something Keyleth experienced as part of her hesitation, rather than Vax getting that vision? I'm willing to see where they're going with this. It makes sense they need to tighten up some of the back and forth and nuance of the romance, it's just a little strange to me so far.

Bob's Burgers: The Tina Table: The Tables Have Tina-ed (15x01)

Fun to be back to school with the kids! This was a great episode to open up our fifteenth season.

Cons:

This isn't really a flaw of this episode, but a general note... one of the things I love about Louise is that she's an agent of chaos but she always comes through when it matters. I've noticed a trend recently of her being a little more... responsible, end of the day, than you would expect? It was interesting to me that her role in this episode was to convince Tina to do the right thing, even though the wrong thing was causing so much chaos and making people act so wacky. You'd think maybe Louise would be into that, at least at first? And then maybe have a turn a little later? But she immediately was against all these shenanigans, which I thought was a little odd. 

Grey's Anatomy: If Walls Could Talk (21x01)

Wow, I hate Catherine Fox so much! Kind of an uneven premiere in terms of the things I care about.

Cons:

Honestly there's kind of a cognitive dissonance to how much Catherine sucks as a character, and her marriage to Richard. How exactly is he managing to thread the line with all of his friends who his wife just fired? It's bizarre and it's irritating. She's so entitled and such a bully and she's so unambiguously wrong in this situation that it's hard to see the complexity of the situation. And I hate Jackson being on his mom's side here, against Meredith! No no no! I didn't hate the Meredith and Catherine scene about her health, but I just keep coming back to Catherine literally being the Big Business Baddie who is restricting access to life-saving knowledge. Yuck!

Lucas Adams is still the most uninteresting intern by a large measure, and I hate that so much of our time is wasted on his angst. When he shows up at the end to Simone's door and declares that he's not going to Chicago, I'm thinking... boooo. I wish you'd go, and I wish Yasuda would stay instead. She's a better character in every way.

Bob's Burgers: To Catch a Beef (14x16)

Delightfully chaotic!

Cons:

I honestly can't think of anything on this one I would have wanted to change? I guess as a very, very small note, I'll say that Teddy mentions Mort sitting in his seat, and it made me realize that we don't really see Mort anymore as a character on this show? They should have him swing by the restaurant more often.

Bob's Burgers: The Right Tough Stuff (14x15)

A cute episode!

Cons:

The meat grinder plot thread felt a little... half baked for me? Not to get too serious about it, but I don't know if I like the messaging that a new, more efficient method of doing work is actually somehow spiritually worse for Bob and the restaurant. It's kind of a luddite argument, if you think about it. Maybe a more nuanced version of this story is that Bob's obsession with the meat grinder eventually fades and it turns into another mundane tool of his job. He has a new flash of excitement and then it becomes a routine, and one day that electric meat grinder will seem as unremarkable as the old hand crank.  And now another part of his job is a little easier because he has more time, or something. Innovation isn't magical, but it often can be a good thing!

Bob's Burgers: The Big Stieblitzki (14x14)

A cute episode! It's nice to be back with these characters.

Cons:

Can't really think of anything to complain about... I guess the chaos level with the adults bowling was pretty low, I would have liked to see more from that. It feels like even more bowling shenanigans might have been possible.

Pros:

I really love Rudy episodes, and I love when Louise gets time to shine as a good person always looking to help others out, albeit in a chaotic and crazy way. She wants to cause maximum mayhem, but when she gets additional information about the relationship dynamic between Rudy's divorced parents, and the new guy his mom is dating, she does everything she can to put a stop to it for the good of all. That's our Louise!

Doctor Who: Empire of Death (14x08)

This season flew by so quickly, I can't believe we have to wait until the end of the year for more of Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor! Let's dive in.

Cons:

Unfortunately, my big complaint from last week's episode does still hold true for me here. Sutekh as our villain to finish off the season doesn't really do anything for me. I don't know him, I don't know the lore, and "death" is kind of a generic villain, is he not? I mean, sure, I love that the Doctor takes on the mantle of Life, and defeats Death by turning Death on himself, that's a cool enough concept. But really this is some Marvel-esque drama, isn't it? Everyone in the world gets turned to dust, then the Doctor fixes it and everyone comes back. It's just sort of a generic bad guy to cap off the season.

And look - I liked the stuff with Ruby and finding her mom, I really did, but I do feel like several questions remained unanswered that had to do with Ruby specifically. Namely, what did old Ruby say to people to get them to run away in "73 Yards"? I really thought we'd get the answer here, but we didn't, really. Also, Ruby made it snow with the power of memories or something, so like... was that a Sutekh thing, or is there something more going on with Ruby? I don't need this show to "make sense", honestly, but when they seed little hints of things and they don't pay off, it does sort of chafe.

Doctor Who: The Legend of Ruby Sunday (14x07)

This is an undeniably excellent season of this show, wow!

Cons:

So, the big thing is, I don't know who Sutekh is within the lore of this show. I went and did a google, and he's a figure who appeared in one episode and then a bunch of tie-in stuff. There was a lot about this "reveal" that was effective, and I'm not saying knowing the deep lore is a requirement to get the significance of the twist, but it's like... I don't know. Ideally, you spend all season with the mystery of this recurring woman, and you hear people talking about "The One Who Waits," and then the moment of truth hits and you go "oh shit! I can't believe it was [blank] the whole time!" Sutekh could have been "Bob the Scary Demon Man" and it would have made no difference to me or, I would wager, to the majority of the audience.

I also think I could have used a bit more buildup of "The One Who Waits" just as a concept. Could have used one or two additional drops of that phrase. There's something a little clunky about the reveal being a god of Death, because it's like... hmm. Isn't the saying "time waits for no man," like, Death is going to get you, you can't run from it? So the idea of a death god "waiting" and then deciding to "stop waiting" is a little off for me. My favorite depictions of Death in fiction are always Death as Inevitability. Not cruel, not actively violent, just... it's coming for us all. This dude by contrast seems to be more of a god of destruction, an active force that wants to kill the universe. I'm down for it, I'm just saying maybe the "waiting" aspect is a little muddy.

Doctor Who: Rogue (14x06)

Mr. Groff! Sir! Excuse you!

Cons:

Honestly, I don't know if I can think of anything I'd change! Just that I wish Groff was coming on the show to stay, no matter how unrealistic that is.

Also - this isn't really a "con" so much as it is a "concern" or even just a question: last week's episode ending on such a stark scene of the Doctor forced to confront racism, it felt strange to set the next episode in the 19th century and have the Doctor's race entirely unremarked upon. Not bad, honestly, I kind of prefer just hand-waving that kind of thing for the sake of the story here, but it had the phantom bad taste of a show like Bridgerton that decided to do racial diversity by painting on a historical reason that racism isn't a thing anymore in Regency England and then just trotting along with a story entrenched in the restrictive systems that allowed for racism to exist in the first place. I'm being too serious here, but I just wanted to mention it.

Doctor Who: Dot and Bubble (14x05)

Wow, holy shit. This season keeps getting better and better.

Cons:

I really only have one tiny complaint, and it's that I wish the walking thing had been done a little differently? I think, allegorically, the idea that they all need arrows and instruction to be able to walk around when they have their bubbles up all the time is a good idea. Like, often when I'm driving somewhere I should know how to get to on my own, I still pull up the map on my phone just as an extra sense of security, or because I never bothered to fully memorize which side street to turn down or what have you. So it makes sense on that level. But the part where Lindy is literally running into poles and desks and stuff read as a little too ridiculous. I wish it had been a little less literal? Like what if instead of running into stuff, it's that Lindy is overwhelmed by the variety of things she's looking at around her, constantly distracted and overwhelmed, and she needs to mutter instructions to herself in order to force herself to walk, and she still takes the sharp 90 degree turns everywhere because that's what she's used to. And then when faced with a monster right in front of her that's blocking her most natural path towards the exit, she freezes up and can't figure out how to make herself find an alternative route right away. That would work better than the scene where she's literally just running into a pole multiple times.

Grey's Anatomy: Burn It Down (20x10)

Ughhhh. Wow. That was not a good finale for me, for a lot of reasons.

Cons:

Gosh, where to even start, my list of grievances is so long. I guess let's go with a couple of the smaller irritants first: Jo being pregnant is such a no from me. And her not telling Link about it? What? Yeesh. I guess I'm glad that her dramatic passing out was just exhaustion and that she's fine, just pregnant, but I'm also very grumbly about the whole thing. It does seem like this show prioritizes storylines that I'm less interested in, and pushes aside the things that would really compel me.

Case in point number two, Lucas and his future fate. I wanted to be moved by everyone showing up to plead his case in front of Catherine, and in a way I was: good on Bailey and the interns for standing up to Catherine Fox, she badly needs to be told she's overstepping, honestly. But Lucas is just so fundamentally uninteresting to me, that the idea that the cliffhanger of the whole season is "but what about Lucas's career" just... sucks, from an investment perspective. Yasuda and Kwan and Jules are at this point far more interesting to me, and I like Simone a lot when she's not tied up in Lucas's drama. I'm just bummed about where the story investment is going, is I guess what I'm saying.

Doctor Who: 73 Yards (14x04)

I categorically refuse to call this "season one" of Doctor Who (2023) so just jot that down, Disney.

Anyway. I think I really liked this episode but also... huh? What is happening here?

Cons:

This is maybe the epitome of amazing setup, disappointing payoff. I was riveted the whole way through the run-time trying to figure out what was going to happen. I was scared of the creepy lady, I was intrigued by the Mad Jack story, I was waiting with baited breath for the big reveal. And then, the second the episode was over, I sat there thinking...

But wait. What? Does any of this make any sense at all? So, as far as I can tell, creepy old woman was Ruby as an old lady getting sent back and stuck in time somehow, sent to warn young Ruby to stop the Doctor from stepping on the fairy circle and breaking it, thus preventing her lifetime of loneliness as everyone she ever meets leaves her.

But... okay, what? What did the old Ruby say to everyone who came close to her to talk to her, that made them all run away in fear? And it wasn't just fear in the moment: Ruby's mother ran and then shunned her entirely and wouldn't ever speak to her again for the rest of her life. Why? What was said? We get no answer about this whatsoever. And was the Mad Jack thing just a coincidence? Did the circle that the Doctor broke actually have something to do with it? Why would that name be on the scrolls if it was something from the future? Did older Ruby... leave that message there? But that doesn't make any sense either, does it? How much agency did older Ruby have over what she was doing? Not much, it seems, since she just stood there and repeated the same series of gestures again and again. What was the circle, actually? Magically speaking? Did it send the Doctor somewhere specific? Just blip him out of existence?

Grey's Anatomy: I Carry Your Heart (20x09)

Nick is so annoyingggg. This episode was full of multiple little irritants, to be honest.

Cons:

Like, look, I understand that Meredith is being a bad girlfriend to him, I do understand that. But Nick is still the most boring man ever invented for TV so it's hard for me to be invested in Meredith's love life with him. So when she's being dismissive and not prioritizing him, I'm like... so? Good for you. Leave his ass, Meredith, he's so generic I couldn't pick him out of a line-up. So I'm not invested on whether Nick decides to stick it out or not. I don't even know if I buy that Meredith would care that much if he suddenly vanished in a puff of smoke.

Link and Jo also suck in this episode! Their petty little fight over a patient just re-emphasized how uninteresting I find their romance. When they're happy, they're bland and forced. When they're snipping at each other, I just wish Alex Karev would barge into the room and take Jo back to run off with him so they can be happy. I've loved Jo for so long as a character but to be honest, with the news of Schmitt and Yasuda leaving next season, I'd swap Jo and Link for them in a heartbeat.

Bob's Burgers: Butt Sweat and Fears (14x13)

This has nothing to do with anything at all, but I should tell you that right now there are only a couple of shows I'm actively reviewing, and another one of them is Grey's Anatomy. Their most recent episode was called "Blood, Sweat and Tears" so when I saw the title of this episode I did do a double take.

Anyway. Let's dive in! This is the finale of the season, looks like, given the shorter episode order due to the strikes last year.

Cons:

I don't have any big giant complaints, more just... I could have used a bit more with the subplot back at the restaurant? The secret restaurant idea was very funny, I could have used a whole episode about that concept. More and more people learning about it, Bob getting overwhelmed, maybe a gag about someone coming into the upstairs part of the restaurant and failing to get served because everyone's in the basement... could have been a fun opportunity for even more shenanigans. I liked what we got, but it felt a little half-baked.

Tammy and Jocelyn felt oddly utilized in this episode. Instead of being antagonistic to Tina, they seemed to be not only her friend, but also actively pursuing that friendship, wanting to find her on the dancefloor and everything. It felt like a shift of how that relationship is normally portrayed, and I could have used a little more clarity on that.

Doctor Who: Boom (14x03)

I regret to inform you that this was a very good episode of Doctor Who. Fucking Moffat, knock it off with being an occasionally very good writer. I hate this dude.

Cons:

I thought the romance arc between Mundy and the random dude whose name I can't remember was probably the least memorable part of the episode? It just felt a little flat and proscribed, and it fell into some cliche writing tropes. Why is it always that an oblivious woman is being pined after by her long-suffering martyr of a best friend? It's giving Rory and Amy, it's giving... Joss Whedon. I don't know. I didn't hate this, but it didn't add a ton to the story, it almost felt like more of a distraction to the core relationships that we should have been focusing on.

This was the most I've enjoyed Ruby and the Doctor's relationship on the show yet, but there was this one moment that I had a problem with in the writing. The Doctor is calling out to a dying Ruby and basically says "I need to talk out loud in order to think, and you're the only person I can talk to." I think I get what the goal was here, but it read a little strange to me. Because the point of the Doctor is kind of that he can make friends with most people, isn't it? He finds the connection, and the adventurous spirit, and the bravery, in all sorts of people he comes across. We even see him forming connections with the other people he's meeting in this very episode. So I do wish the sentiment had been adjusted just slightly. Ruby shouldn't be valued and loved simply because she is uniquely able to provide the Doctor with companionship. You know?

Grey's Anatomy: Blood, Sweat and Tears (20x08)

Full disclosure, I watched this episode with constant interruptions so my brain is even more scattered than usual as I try and remember everything that happened.

Cons:

Simone and Lucas just really isn't doing a lot for me. I wanted to be moved by Simone's speech at the end: "I'm a better Doctor because of you." I think the two of them have just caused each other too much pain, and not like... juicy, interesting, dramatic pain, just... two people acting really poorly, kind of boring and yet somehow simultaneously stressful to watch. So they hook up, and then the next day at the test, Lucas is avoiding Simone's eyes... come on. How many more rounds of pointless hesitation are we going to be on with these two?

Pros:

This Amelia and Monica thing is pretty fun. Nothing much has actually happened so far, but I'm excited for it to start happening. "I've seen your hands" is such a delightfully bonkers thing to say to a professional colleague, I don't think Amelia was at all off base with the vibe she was picking up. At least we get the (scarcely needed) confirmation that Monica is queer, as she drops the news that she's going through a messy divorce with her wife. I like what they're doing with Monica's character, she has a sort of no-nonsense attitude but she's so wonderful and affirming with her patients. I think it's that thing where if you talk to kids like they're human beings capable of knowing their own minds, they'll really respond to that. And the story about the young trans girl was really moving. When she revealed she was anxious about surgery because of people seeing her naked body, I teared up a little!

Doctor Who: The Devil's Chord (14x02)

Maybe I'm just a hater? I don't know. I liked this one better than the last in some ways, but I still... hmmm.

Cons:

So, I want to narrow in on what I was noticing about the Doctor and Ruby. There are plenty of moments when they play off of each other just fine, but they become pretty difficult to watch, for me, whenever they enter a mode I'm going to call "dynamic duo putting together the clues". It's that classic beat in many episodes of this show where the weirdness is happening, and the Doctor and his companion are riffing off each other, putting the pieces together, throwing out theories. The way these two do it is just... god, it's like, this weird manic energy where they don't actually riff, one of them just says something and the other one just repeats it in a high-pitched tone with a bunch of exclamation points. It's like they trying to manufacture the proper energy of invigoration by force, instead of their energies naturally feeding off of each other. I can't explain it any better than that.

I also feel like their affection for each other isn't earned; there are a couple of Ruby/Doctor hugs in this episode, the two of them reaching for each other when scared or in danger, that felt so proscribed to me. And there's this moment where Ruby is insisting, worriedly, "but you always have the answer!" and the Doctor has to give her the dire news that he doesn't know the way out of this one, and it just... I don't know. For one thing, this is only Ruby's third adventure with the Doctor, and he didn't have the answers the other two times either. For another, I think it comes a little too early in the episode to be this moment of despair before the turn to triumph, so it just kind of lands flat.

Doctor Who: Space Babies (14x01)

Huh. Based on what I'm seeing online, I might be in a minority opinion on this episode, because I thought it was pretty middling at best?

Cons:

So, I'll start by saying I think a couple of my complaints are going to be "too soon to judge" sorts of things. This is only our second episode seeing Ruby and the Doctor interact, so I'm totally willing, and excited, to see how their dynamic is going to evolve as we go on. But in this episode specifically, I felt like both of them were sort of... over-acting in order to artificially charge up their chemistry on screen? There were a lot of really loud line deliveries and kind of awkward pacing within the lines, eyes getting big, just like... really oversized reactions in the midst of conversations that didn't need to be played so... theatrically, I guess? This is a little hard to explain because I'm not criticizing like, the overall direction that Ncuti Gatwa is taking the character, I think there's a lot of great stuff there, it was just... it felt like both actors were playing up this great connection and affection they had for each other in a way that felt unearned. It's strange, because I liked them together a lot in the Christmas Special, but here it felt like they were trying to speed run the degree to which they'd have such a connection.

Grey's Anatomy: She Used to Be Mine (20x07)

Man, Lucas needs to take several seats, I fear.

Cons:

Of all the new intern characters, Lucas is the one on thinnest ice with me. I've done some flip-flopping over this season, because it's not like I don't understand the pain he's experiencing... but he's making his own rough time everybody else's problem in a way that I just don't find sympathetic. Going off on the patient, Dorian's, friends was just... wow. He was projecting hard about something that had nothing to do with him. While I love Yasuda, I also didn't buy the vibe of the two of them bickering like siblings, and this being a comfort to both of them. She's right: Adams moved out, and Simone was the one who invited Kwan to move in. It's not something Adams has the right to be legitimately pissed off about, to be honest!

The Teddy and Owen stuff... come on. Yawn. Any time someone on this show evokes the long history these two have had, I keep thinking back to when I used to like Teddy as a character and it just sort of bums me out. When she was yapping away in the OR with Richard, I was trying to figure out what angle they were going to take, with Owen being kind of "off" with her... was it just that she was being super annoying after being cooped up during recovery? That could be kind of funny, and played for laughs, if it was just a "oh my god, Teddy, get out of the house and hang out with some friends, you're driving me bonkers." But instead it was this thing of Owen being afraid to lose her, because their lives are settled into such complicated routines? I don't know. It just felt lazy and uninspired, and then they immediately had sex about it which we're supposed to celebrate as them coming back together and feeling connected? I don't know. This whole thing didn't do a lot for me.

Grey's Anatomy: The Marathon Continues (20x06)

Alright, let's dive in!

Cons:

A recurring and somewhat befuddling theme of more recent seasons of Grey's Anatomy is the attempt to address the completely horrifying way the medical education system operates. The fact that interns work eighty hour weeks and don't have time to eat or sleep has been part of the show from the beginning. But I struggle to understand what the show's... thesis is, here, if that makes sense. Is it a "back in my day we didn't complain about a little hard work" thing? Because I don't think so, that would be pretty out of character for this show. But then you've got Bailey giving everyone wellness bags that are full of band-aid solutions, and then later she sends Simone and Kwan home for griping about their low pay and long hours? But then I guess it's about how Bailey also needs a break or whatever. She says a thing about how the system is designed poorly and there's not a lot that can be done in the individual level. So is that the point? I don't know. It's just a little muddy.

Richard having a moment of fuzziness where he hesitates to step in... I really do feel like I'm on a merry-go-round with Richard as a character at this point. This one was kind of a fake-out, where it looked like Richard was going to choke up at the finish line but then he stepped in and was fine and saved a life. Are we going to keep dragging this out where he's unsure if he should still be actively practicing, so he takes an admin role? Have I not seen him go through that process more than once already? This man was talking about retirement towards the beginning of this show's runtime!

Grey's Anatomy: Never Felt So Alone (20x05)

Man, Nick sucks so much as a character I cannot believe.

Cons:

I'm going to be a broken record about Jo and Link, but wow, I don't care about their relationship. This pregnancy scare is a cheap way to introduce a shot of lightly-comedic drama into their honeymoon period and I'm bored to tears by all of it. It's a shame, because I actually think both actors are really charming and funny, and yet when they're playing off of each other in a scene, I feel absolutely nothing. The idea of going through a Jo/Link marriage and babies story just fills me with a sense of defeat and ennui. Alex Karev I miss you so much.

I feel like the takeaway from this episode is supposed to be that Meredith is being unreasonable about the Nick situation, but... nah. Nick is a boring lump of coal and Meredith has a lot of trauma around the death of loved ones, and Nick should have called sooner. I just wish that Meredith had been settled off-screen with a less annoying endgame love interest. It feels like we've lost our chance for Meredith to find a new forever person on screen, because Ellen Pompeo isn't interested in doing that anymore, and fair enough, but Nick? God, he sucks so hard.

Grey's Anatomy: Baby Can I Hold You (20x04)

It was lovely to see Arizona, but I kind of feel like her guest starring here was a bit of a waste, in some ways!

Cons:

This show is usually so good at fanservice, to the point where I find myself rolling my eyes sometimes at it... but damn it all to hell, I can't believe we got Arizona on our screens and nobody mentioned Callie or Sofia?? What the heck is that about! Not even a passing mention to give people hope that they ended up back together, even if they didn't want to confirm it?

This show has been playing chicken with the idea of Richard retiring for such a long time now that it really does get tiresome. We see that he gets frazzled in the OR and has to step out, but Teddy promises to have his back and tell him if he doesn't belong there anymore. I don't know, man, let the dude retire! I don't want to watch him dealing with his sobriety and his age and his career for the bajillionth time, actually.

Grey's Anatomy: Walk on the Ocean (20x03)

Man, lotsa juicy drama in this one.

Cons:

I thought Winston having a subplot about giving up on his marriage with Maggie was a little weird and unnecessary. I legit hadn't realized we were supposed to think they were still trying to work on their relationship. Maggie left him and Winston seemed pretty firm on what that meant. Or am I misremembering?

The main catastrophe of this episode features a man who gets extravagantly injured trying to imitate the jet-setting adventurous behavior of his wife's ex-husband, in order to prove to himself and to her that he's cool enough. I felt like thematically this was kind of basic and didn't really connect to the characters as much as I wanted, and then the poor wife at the end when she shows up and learns that her husband is dead... she wasn't the strongest actor, unfortunately. The crying needed some work.

Grey's Anatomy: Keep the Family Close (20x02)

"Discretion is my middle name. Actually, it's Elaine." Yasuda, I love you. Let's dive in!

Cons:

Schmitt and his patient Dante call it "The Great Bake-Off" instead of "The Great British Baking Show" or "The Great British Bake-Off" and I'd just like to lodge a complaint on that. What the hell? Who says that?

Link and Jo's subplot this week is about Link being more romantic and sentimental, and a somewhat joke-y exchange where Link is offended that Jo doesn't remember the details of how they met. In the end, Jo makes a romantic meal and lights candles to reinforce that she appreciates the romance in their relationship. There's nothing offensive about this necessarily, but it just feeds into the worst vibes I have about this pairing. It feels forced, it feels proscribed, it feels like they need to come up with over the top sappy moments to try and convince the audience that they're really in love. And I'm not convinced. I did kind of like the Amelia and Jo scene, though. I think it's sweet that Amelia clocked the relationship issue and took a risk by saying something.

Grey's Anatomy: We've Only Just Begun (20x01)

And we're back! Crazy that this is the 20th season. I saw that Station 19 is ending after this season, which means Grey's has a very solid chance of outlasting another spinoff! Let's dive right in.

Cons:

I am still repulsed by Jo and Link, I cannot help it. They just do absolutely nothing for me and it feels like such a forced, lazy writing choice. I think part of it is just that Jo and Alex, and Amelia and Link, both felt like real, organic, interesting romances to me that were earned over a long period of time, and this is just like... eh, throw the leftovers together I guess.

My Owen and Teddy dislike will never go away, but in this episode it wasn't so much that they annoyed me as that the storyline felt completely unnecessary? Teddy collapsing and needing emergency surgery and potentially dying felt like even more of a lazy tacked on drama for the cliffhanger last season than I'm used to with this show.

Bob's Burgers: Jade in the Shade (14x12)

This one was really cute! You know I love a good Louise-centric episode.

Cons:

I was wishing for a little bit more of a punchline with Cynthia and Logan being there. It was sort of funny to have them follow Linda and Louise, but the conclusion had nothing to do with them, just saw them fooled by Louise once and then sitting around eating raisins. I felt like there could have been more punch there, like maybe Logan realizes the deception and decides to go tell on Louise to Fischoeder, thus continuing their distaste for each other in future episodes due to the betrayal.

Bob's Burgers: Mission Impossi-Bob (14x11)

A very fun episode!

Cons:

I really have no complaints at all. I could have used even more fun weird times with the crazy bunker man, I wanted to know his whole deal. Maybe if Teddy keeps doing work for him, he'll come back later.

Pros:

The main plot features Bob going on a rescue mission to find Teddy, who has trapped himself in a panic room/safe thing that a wealthy client has asked him to help with. There's all this convoluted information presented to us over a series of phone calls with Teddy, whose phone is in danger of dying as he rambles on about seemingly irrelevant things in an attempt to explain to Bob how to find and rescue him.