Castle: XX (8x02)

Yikes. I've gotta say - I did not see that one coming. I'm really not sure how to process everything that I just witnessed. I admire this show for not resting on its laurels, and giving us something truly different to contemplate. I have no idea how we're supposed to go forward from here. Let's start with some of my complaints.

Cons:

The mystery itself is sort of... incidental. It turns out that there's a secret memo that's connected with Bracken's criminal activity. Because of this memo, Beckett's old team at the FBI ends up dead, and Beckett finds out that she might be next. The guy she runs off with tells her that anybody that she contacts will be in danger, so Beckett has to go off the grid. They end up meeting Castle's mother-in-law Rita, a bad ass spy lady who's married to Castle's wayward father. We watch as Castle, with Alexis and Hayley assisting, puts together the pieces of the puzzle at the same time that Beckett and Vikram do the same. In the end, Bracken ends up dead in his prison cell, and the Attorney General is revealed to be connected in some way. It all turns out... sort of unfinished. The details are hazy, and we're left uncertain as to the truth.

Honestly, the reason this is a con is because it doesn't matter. I honestly could not care less about the specifics behind this mystery. It's just not compelling to rehash old material like this. I also thought the introduction of Rita came right out of left field. It was almost like they wanted to bring Castle's father back in, but they had to settle for an awkward replacement. Why include her at all? I mean, I guess it was cute to see Beckett welcomed to Castle's family by another mother figure, but otherwise it was totally out of place.

The Big Bang Theory: The Separation Oscillation (9x02)

Underwhelming, but mostly okay. Let's just get straight to it.

Cons:

Are Penny and Leonard really okay now? In this episode, they had some relationship woes as Penny struggled to accept that Leonard had kissed another woman. But by the end of the twenty minute episode, it appeared everything had sorted itself out. If that's really all we're getting, then I'm annoyed. This show needs to learn to stick to its guns and give us some real A-plot every once in a while!

There were a few typically sexist and unfeeling comments from Sheldon, but surprisingly they didn't piss me off to much. Unlike last week, I think we're supposed to feel derision for Sheldon's behavior here. Even so, I wish we could find other ways of getting to the point without having Sheldon come across as such a misogynist.

Once Upon a Time: The Dark Swan (5x01)

Yay! Awesome episode is awesomeeeee! I'm so happy that this show is back. I've been looking forward to Emma Swan as the Dark One since the second I realized it was going to happen. Let's start with a few little annoyances, so I can spend the bulk of the review gushing about how awesome this is going to be.

Cons:

At the very end of this episode, after all of our heroes have followed Emma into the Enchanted Forest and pulled her away from the Darkness, everybody wakes up back in Storybrooke. And they can't remember the past six weeks. Emma has gone full Dark, and nobody knows why. So... in reality, it's probably a good idea to tell the story in flashbacks. That's one of this show's strengths. But at the same time, isn't the amnesia thing getting a little tired? We've already done the memory loss thing several times on this show! I'm getting really sick of it!

The other potential flaw is with our new characters. I'm reserving judgment - maybe they will become more interesting in future, but so far they're not doing much for me. Merida's personality is basically "Scottish person," and Arthur's is "generic kingly Brit." To be fair, it's still early. Hopefully these characters will gain some interesting personalities as we move forward.

Let's talk about all the good stuff!

Doctor Who: The Witch's Familiar (9x02)

I'm pretty happy. The Moffat-itis appears to be mild, here. Let's just get right into the thick of it.

Cons:

There are a couple of "twists" in this episode that I think were a bit too twisty. Not in the sense that they were too confusing, but in the sense that they were trying too hard to be like "gotcha!" The first was that Missy and Clara aren't really dead. Oh, please. Quelle surprise. The next one was that Davros wasn't really connecting compassionately with the Doctor at the end of his life. There's this moment when the Doctor, in a fit of pity, uses a bit of his regeneration energy to try and allow Davros the strength to see one more sunset. The minute the Doctor exposes some of his energy to Davros, Davros uses it to power up all of the Daleks on Skaro. There was even a twist on the twist, because apparently the Doctor knew all along what Davros was up to. This annoys me because I hate it when protagonists are impossibly ahead of the game all of the time. It makes it hard to find anybody who's an actual threat.

The third "twist" was the resolution of last week's cliffhanger, when we saw the Doctor "exterminate" the young Davros in a desperate effort to save Clara. But this time we see what really happened - the Doctor exterminated the hand mines and saved young Davros, thus giving him the ounce of compassion that he needed for years later, so that Clara could be saved. I guess the reason this is a con is because I would have been annoyed either way. I'm annoyed at the attempted trickery - of course the Doctor didn't kill an innocent boy for crimes he had not yet committed. But I don't know what I would have preferred instead... I would have been even more annoyed if the Doctor had actually killed him somehow.

Grey's Anatomy: Sledgehammer (12x01)

Twelve seasons! That's insane. I read in a promo article that things are going to be "lighter" this season, and I think I'm seeing the hints of it already in this premiere. It wasn't a non-stop barrel of laughs, but nobody died, and there was a great deal of hope and humor. I'm a fan. We've jumped forward three months from where we left off, and things are settling back in to a routine at Grey-Sloan. Let's jump in.

Cons:

The only real flaw I found in this episode was a small subplot centered around Arizona and Stephanie. Apparently, Arizona and Callie sold the house, and Arizona needs some help paying the rent on her new place. The only problem is, nobody wants to live with her. Arizona asks Stephanie why, and Stephanie finally admits it's because Arizona is kind of a legend. She survived a plane crash, a car crash, and myriad other disasters. She talks really fast, she sleeps with interns and gets them fired, and people say she's faking having an amputated leg. In the end, the new intern who accidentally impersonated an attending in the season finale last year, opts to move in with Arizona. He says that the other interns have turned on him due to his little stunt. So... this plot thread was trying to be... funny? I think? I don't really know, but I do know that whatever it was going for, it didn't really land it. I guess the only good thing going on here is that it's setting up a promising new dynamic between Arizona and this new intern guy. I'm always interested to see what Grey's is going to do with new characters.

Modern Family: Summer Lovin' (7x01)

What a cute start to the season! Let's go over some of the pros and cons.

Cons:

I think this show is too clever to get away with putting someone in a fat suit. In this episode, we saw two versions of a person who has let himself fall apart. One is Mitchell, who quite cleverly starts to resemble Van Gogh, and the other is Andy, who just suddenly gets fat. I don't think the joke quite landed.

There was one plot thread in this episode that was a bit weak - Jay and Gloria are trying to find a preschool for Joe. The really good, fancy one with the kids of a bunch of celebrities has a long waiting list. Instead, Joe ends up at a hippy school where the kids run around with chickens in a park. This plot thread was... well, it lacked the usual creativity of Modern Family's humor. I thought there were a few funny moments, mostly with the teacher of the first school, as she gave hints as to the celebrities whose kids attended. I also liked when Gloria said that the "Learnin' Barn" seemed like a good school, because in her village only the richest children got to go to school in the barn. But other than a few clever jokes, I found myself bored.

But other than those few weaknesses, I was very happy!

Castle: XY (8x01)

Starting things off with a bang, apparently. This episode brought back in the sinister Senator Bracken, and added new intrigue with Kate going missing. I'm going to dive straight in to some of the pros/cons of this episode.

Cons:

Esposito and Ryan had very little to do in this opening episode. Beckett goes missing, and she appears to be working under her own power. They figure out very quickly that she's not kidnapped. I feel like Espo and Ryan could have had a bit more to do in terms of finding her... they mostly took a backseat. The episode starts with a brief subplot - Ryan tells Espo that Jenny is pregnant again, but he's worried about money, and worried about his stagnating career. Interesting in theory, but it didn't go anywhere.

So... Beckett getting kidnapped is sort of a cliche, which is fine in theory, but I hate the fact that she's hiding some big secret from Castle. It makes me not believe in them as a couple, and that sucks. I don't honestly think there's anything that could be going on that would justify Beckett lying to Castle like this. It's not believable in a couple that's supposed to be committed and supportive of each other.

The Big Bang Theory: The Matrimonial Momentum (9x01)

Sigh. This show is sooo hit and miss. I never know what I'm going to get. There were some good elements here, but I also found myself deeply annoyed by a few things. Let's get started with some of the negatives.

Cons:

Sheldon's sexism. So, in this episode, Sheldon is deeply hurt that Amy has broken up with him. He continually pesters her, to the point where Amy insists that she doesn't need any more time to think things over - they are definitely broke up, for good. Sheldon, instead of railing against Amy specifically, keeps talking about how all women are terrible, and women do nothing but talk about "girl stuff," and how men are clearly the better gender. Give me a break. I understand it's supposed to be comedy, and that I shouldn't take it seriously. But if that was the case, then we need to see that the joke is on Sheldon. Sheldon should be mocked by the show for the ridiculous things he's saying. But that's not what's happening here. We're meant to laugh at what Sheldon is saying about women, not at the fact that he's saying it in the first place. Highly annoying.

Raj, Stuart, Bernadette and Howard were all in this episode, but they had nothing to do. As everybody gathered around to watch Penny and Leonard get married in Vegas, via a video on the internet, I kept waiting for the banter to start between this fun group of characters. But nothing. All of the focus was on Sheldon and Amy and their bickering. Sort of a letdown, particularly for a season opener.
 

Doctor Who: The Magician's Apprentice (9x01)

Well, we're back. Not only is this the start of a new season of Doctor Who, it also marks the beginning of fall premiere season, meaning I've got to get back into the swing of writing these things. I'm going to try something a little different, starting with today's review. Instead of going in to an in-depth plot summary, I'm just going to jump straight in to pros and cons and talk about what happened throughout. We'll see how it goes. As always, however, we're going to start with the negatives.

Cons:

This episode suffered from a bit of Moffat-itis, although I am happy to say the symptoms are so far mild. One of my biggest complaints about Moffat as show-runner is his need to "epic-ify" everything. Now, for a series premiere, I'm rather okay with that. But I must admit it gets annoying when we continually focus on the Doctor as the center of events. Everything is about him. About how extraordinary he is. I guess I miss the occasional simple episode where the Doctor and his companion travel somewhere for fun and get swept up in somebody else's drama. I don't like the grandness implied by the Doctor's presence.

What the hell are they doing with Clara? Only Jenna Coleman's acting has saved this character from being one of the most truly awful things to come out of Doctor Who in a long while. She is seriously nothing but a pawn! In this episode, she finds the Doctor, and then goes with him when he turns himself over to Davros, and then gets herself trapped and killed. She doesn't solve anything, figure anything out other than that the Doctor is probably at a party, and she is just generally useless as a companion. When she died, I didn't even feel particularly sad, because the visual cues in the episode kept saying "wait for it... wait for it..." and so I can't even register this as a character death until I see what next week's episode brings. Here's the thing about Clara: in the beginning, she was a puzzle for the Doctor to solve, which was, as I've discussed, annoying. But now, it's flipped. The Doctor is a puzzle for her to solve. She's always trying to get inside his head, think like he thinks, so that she can figure out what to do about him. This is another one of those things that I always find problematic. The Doctor is an enigma, sure, but it seems like he purposefully obfuscates his intentions just to piss people off. Why? I don't get it.