His Dark Materials: Æsahættr (2x07)

A lot of stuff happens in this episode, but in some moments it still feels a bit clunky. Not terrible, but still...

Cons:

To start with a small nitpick, last week I was complimenting the decision to have Mary Malone stay and help the kids, but this week we only get the briefest glimpse of her, as she drops the kids off back with a community of adults, and then continues on, immediately picking up with her book plot and seeking another window. This was fine, but it felt weird to include that detour and then go nowhere with it. It's almost just like the writers felt sorry for the kids and wanted to wrap up their story arc a bit, but honestly? Kids die in this story. Kids are orphaned and hurt and lonely and powerless. It's part of what makes the story so striking and frightening.

A lot of exposition in this one, folks, and some of it was a bit overdone. Like, the performances are strong enough to bypass the worst of it, but when we finally get the "Eve" namedrop it's come after so much obvious buildup, and we still have Mrs. Coulter spelling it out for us: "she's going to doom us all, and we have to stop her from falling this time." Like, yeah, thanks, we got it.

His Dark Materials: Malice (2x06)

This was by no means a bad hour of television, but it felt like a lot of setup, a lot of spinning wheels, and maybe less of an epic feel than the same moments I remember from the book. Let's dive in.

Cons:

There are many ways in which it feels like the scope was shrunk down for the show, from what was portrayed in the books. Since this was filmed before COVID, I don't really understand why some of these limiting choices where made. In the books, when Will and Lyra are attacked by the child citizens of Cittagaze, it's a protracted chase sequence and they end up climbing a tower and the witches swoop in at the last possible second. Here, it's just the two sisters instead of a whole gang, and they scramble up to the roof, then the witches arrive. In the book, there are a dozen or so witches, and here we see three or four. In the book, Boreal's death comes at a campsite where Mrs. Coulter is staying with him in the nicest tent, and they are surrounded by a whole crew coming with them on the hunt for Lyra, thus showing the influence and power that Mrs. Coulter is giving up by abandoning her supposed protectors. Here, it's just the two of them. All of these things combined make the scope feel smaller, the world feel smaller, in a lot of ways.

And then on the flipside, the episode somewhat has the opposite problem as well. Instead of telling a focused, narrow story, we're spread far and wide, checking in with Lee and Jopari, with the witches, with Coulter and Boreal, Will and Lyra, and... the Magisterium. I want the Magisterium scenes to work for me, but they have consistently been the least interesting in the whole show. When they were drawing out the reveal of Lyra as "Eve" I was rolling my eyes, just waiting for them to get through all the slow, sonorous speechifying and back to the action.

Grey's Anatomy: No Time for Despair (17x06)

Do we think there's any universe in which Meredith dies from Covid? I mean, I want to say no, but I didn't think they'd ever kill Derek off either. It is a soap opera, after all.

Cons:

Something about the way doctors talk about the sex trafficker bad guy patient was just so over the top that I was waiting for a twist where it turns out he was innocent. I feel like we've seen the doctors treating despicable people before, and they had to grit their teeth and handle it. That's basically what happened here, but they were all so vociferous about how hard it was to do, and then we have Maggie's outburst where she talks about how black girls are more likely to be victims and less likely to be believed in situations like this. And like - no argument from me, of course, but I just felt like I've seen this show handle similar issues with smoother writing before.

I mean, Teddy still sucks, so what else is new. I don't mind at all that Owen is like "I never knew you" because that's what she deserves. However, one thing is kind of bugging me about their scene, and that's when Teddy says that Allison wasn't just her best friend, but that they were in love. Owen's reaction is to laugh hysterically and say that they named their daughter after a lie. Now... I don't quite remember. Does Owen know the whole story? Does he know that Allison had a girlfriend at the time, and therefore realize that Teddy is a serial cheater? Because to the untrained eye, it could look like Owen's "I don't know you at all" moment is in response to Teddy basically... coming out to him? Like, is Owen pissed that he didn't know Teddy was attracted to women? I don't know. I don't think that was the intent of the scene, but there were a lot of mixed signals and I was a little uncomfortable about the way the end result was presented. I still don't feel any sympathy for Teddy, really, given the situation as a whole.

His Dark Materials: The Scholar (2x05)

OOF. This was a good one. Maybe the best episode of the season thus far, even though my boy Lee was absent.

Cons:

Pacing-wise, there were a couple of wonky things in moments of tension here. I liked that the confrontation over the alethiometer was expanded, but while Lyra and Mrs. Coulter were having their confrontation, Will and Boreal kind of had to be in stasis, and it was a bit awkward.

Same with the moment when Lyra and Will see that Tullio has fallen to the spectres. The threat level there was sort of off, as the two sisters hugged him and cried. I remember from the book that the two younger siblings were pretty much fully feral and it felt like they might really attack and hurt Will and Lyra. And speaking of hurt Will, another thing I'm missing from the books is how badly Will is supposed to be doing, health-wise, because of his hand. In the book, there are constant reminders that he hasn't stopped bleeding, and he is in real pain all the time. That really upped the tension, as while they were working on their other goals, they also had this looming health threat slowing them down and causing added drama along the way. I haven't gotten that same sense from the show.

Grey's Anatomy: Fight the Power (17x05)

Oh, poor Bailey...

Cons:

I want to be very careful and precise on how I talk about this, but I do think that the messaging in this episode was very blunt and somewhat poorly scripted. We had Bailey and Maggie talking about their experiences of being underestimated, of having to work twice as hard and become exceptional just to be considered worthy of notice. And then we had Jackson and Richard, spouting off statistics and talking about systemic racism. Both of these conversations were good, in that I agreed with the message and agree that it's an important one. But I can think of so many times during the course of this show when important messages were delivered through the heart and soul of the characters that we already knew and loved... as compared to this, which felt like our black faves delivering prepared remarks to us in a Very Special Episode. It wasn't godawful. It was just... not as smooth, not as personal, as I wanted it to be.

Fuck Teddy Altman. I feel like I need to say that every week. I'm so happy that Tom seems to be doing better, and that hopefully he's not on the verge of death, but Teddy's speech, talking about repairing their relationship, just made me mad, because what the fuck has she done to earn any measure of forgiveness at all? I want Tom to be okay. And I even want Owen to be okay, despite my general dislike of him. But at this point, I don't know that I'm ever going to be actively rooting for Teddy's happiness again.

His Dark Materials: Tower of the Angels (2x04)

Okay, yeah, things are really a-happening, aren't they??

Cons:

The witches are so far the weakest link for me this season. They're not bad, but just a little bland. They look cool, and I guess they are cool in what they get up to, but whenever the scene switches over to them I find myself underwhelmed. The puzzle pieces are moving towards each other, as the witches are going to go join Asriel, but I don't have a lot more to report than that.

This is the nitpicky-est of nitpicks, but the subtle knife didn't look how I imagined it in my head! I guess I heard 'knife' and thought 'dagger', so I expected the blade to be bigger, maybe? It's fine, it's not ruining the show for me or anything, but I thought I'd point it out.

Grey's Anatomy: You'll Never Walk Alone (17x04)

Awww George! That was the best possible answer as to who was waiting for Meredith in the pseudo-afterlife. It was so amazing seeing him!

Cons:

I thought Maggie's boyfriend's thing with his dad was a little unrealistic in how blunt it was? Like, he saw his dad on a Zoom call and was immediately like "here is the major family drama that we have, let me explain it to the viewer and then sign off the call." It might have just been an issue of clunky writing.

Okay, Jo and Jackson... tread very, very lightly. I don't mind a good old fashioned friends with benefits situation, but that never seems to go the way we want it to, and I'm not about Jo/Jackson as an actual romantic pairing. This show has convinced me of weirder, but at the moment I just don't want them to pair up because they both happen to be single. Also, any storyline that touches on Jo healing from Alex just gives me visceral flashbacks to how stupid Alex's exit from the show truly was. It's hard to see past that.

His Dark Materials: Theft (2x03)

 I love Lee Scoresby, y'all.

Cons:

This one was pretty light on the "cons" column! If I had to say anything, I'd say that having an episode without Magesterium politics made me realize how much those elements were clogging up the pacing.

Also, Lee Scoresby is amazing and I love him, but I thought the daddy issues angle was a little played out. If that's in the book, it must be a passing reference. I think Marisa Coulter and Lee Scoresby have enough going on with regards to caring for Lyra as a daughter despite not having raised her, without introducing the idea that they both had crappy fathers.

Oh, also, this is a minor detail, but in the book Lyra loses the alethiometer because "Latrom" is sitting in the back seat with her (he has a driver) and he picks it out of her bag. I liked that much better than Lyra getting out of the car in a panic and leaving the whole bag behind. That girl carried that thing around with her in the frozen wastelands and was obsessive about keeping it with her at all times. Seems like the kind of mistake Lyra wouldn't make. Trusting a stranger at the wrong moment in desperation? Sure. Leaving her bag in the car? Maybe not.

His Dark Materials: The Cave (2x02)

 Another solid outing!

Cons:

As with last week, I found the stuff with the Magesterium the least interesting. Mrs. Coulter is great, but it seems to me like we're padding some of the church politics stuff from the book, in order to check in with Coulter more frequently. Maybe I'm misremembering, but I don't think there was quite as much of this in the book. It's not bad, it's just not my favorite aspect.

Will going to the bank, and then to his... grandparents' house? Was kind of weird. I didn't hate it, honestly, but it was another situation where it felt like padding so that we got enough time with Will while Lyra was doing her business as well.

Pros:

Although I did notice some padding in this episode, even that padding wasn't a total loss, as I'm really enjoying the performances across the board! The actor playing Will is doing such a good job of toeing that line, of being a kid who had to grow up too fast, taking on responsibilities, while maintaining that fear and also that credulity that kids continue to have even as they age.

Grey's Anatomy: My Happy Ending (17x03)

Well this was quite lovely, I'm not at all upset about how they're handling the Derek situation!

Cons:

I won't go on too long of a ramble about it, because god knows you all know how I feel, but Owen sucks, Teddy sucks, and Tom, while a jerk, is absolutely the most wronged party in this particular situation. I mean, no, Owen is the most wronged party, I get that, but the way he behaves towards Tom is childish. I was appalled, at the end, when Owen gave Tom the news that he had tested positive for Covid, and he did it in such a callous, unprofessional way. Like, you just told a human being he has a dangerous illness. Show an ounce of compassion. Also just like... fuck Teddy for trying to make amends. Tom is right to want nothing to do with her right now.

I guess it's cool that Meredith chose Richard to be her POA instead of Alex, but honestly I think Maggie would have been just fine... are you really telling me that Richard Webber is going to be better at letting Meredith die when it's her time, than Maggie would be? They're both incredibly stubborn. Plus, I like the idea of it being Alex, even if he's absent... this is the first mention we've gotten of him in quite some time. I wonder if there's supposed to be an implied closeness between them, even though he moved away? I really can't tell, and I wish there was a way it all could have been handled differently, to be quite honest.

Supernatural: Carry On (15x20)

Oh my god. Lol. So... did Andrew Dabb forget to read back through his finale script one final time before deciding it was finished? Because like... Dean says "if we don't keep living, all that sacrifice (Cas and Jack) will be for nothing." Cut to a comically short time later, where Dean dies and is just like "time to go, let's not keep fighting, I'm tired lol."

Like WHAT did I just witness. I'm so grateful, in this moment, to a little show called The Magicians, because in April of 2019 they ended their fourth season with such an egregiously terrible decision that I literally couldn't sleep for a week, I was shaking and intermittently sobbing, I had never felt so betrayed and devastated over any piece of media before. After that, I've sort of become numb to bad endings, and this is no exception. This episode was absolutely terrible and I'm just sort of like... meh. I'll ignore it. Whatever.

I do want to forego the usual "pro" and "con" sections in this review, and do a more traditional full-on ramble about my thoughts, because they're kind of convoluted, if I'm gonna be honest.

His Dark Materials: The City of Magpies (2x01)

And we're back! I had to wait a full week after it aired to watch this episode, because I don't have HBOMax and I'm a dumb American. :)

Cons:

I will say that the stuff with the witches and Mrs. Coulter ended up being my least favorite part of this episode. I think Mrs. Coulter was the stand-out hit in season one, but I can already see how the expanding world is doing a big favor to the way this story is going to be told, and I'm thinking her strangely vulnerable cruelty isn't going to be enough to carry the whole show anymore. The thing is, the acting is great, but if you were a person who hadn't read the books, you might be a little lost in the weeds with the Church politics, and who's lying, and about what.

Similarly, the witch's council scene dragged a bit, and didn't give much of a sense of the witches and their personalities. It felt like an exposition dump scene, albeit with some amazing costume design!

Grey's Anatomy: All Tomorrow's Parties/The Center Won't Hold (17x01/02)

Scout is indeed a cute name but it was weird that they just looped around to the original name that we'd all already heard! But whatever. Adorable. As for the rest of the episode(s)? Let's take a look!

Cons:

I a not a fan of Owen, I never really have been, so I especially resent being in a position where I feel like I need to be on his side. But Teddy? God, Teddy sucks, y'all. It's such a bummer. I loved her character once upon a time, but I don't really see a way forward from this where I can ever root for her again. Not only did she cheat on Owen, often, but when Owen gave her every opportunity to open up, when he tried to salvage something of their trust by giving her chance after chance to come clean, she still maintained her silence. Like, honestly, screw her for that. She gives Jo a whole speech about how she sabotaged her happiness because it was so unfamiliar to her, but no, I'm sorry, give me a break... remember that backstory where she was having an affair with her roommate's girlfriend who then died? And then all of this with Tom? She's a serial adulterer and not a good person.

Speaking of relationship woes... I maintain that Catherine Fox sucks. Without broader context, within this episode, it seems like it's a story about two people who hurt each other but love each other deeply, and I did like that Catherine actually used her words and apologized. But with the broader context? I just honestly don't get the affection between them. I don't believe in their love for one another. Stubborn pride is one thing, but the level of malice behind Catherine's actions? Not acceptable. Also, yes, Richard was wrong to hang out with a woman who was clearly interested in him, but this was during a time when he and Catherine were hardly speaking and basically separated, and I honestly think Catherine's behavior was way worse, over all! But even setting aside my dislike for Catherine... I just don't care about their romance!

Supernatural: Inherit the Earth (15x19)

That was somehow simultaneously a crowded mess, and a complete anticlimax. I'm literally just like... super confused and afraid about what the finale is going to be now.

Cons:

Sam's the dog person. That's part of canon. I liked the moment when Dean found the dog, or whatever, but I wish Sam had gotten a moment with the puppy too, before Chuck took it away. A small thing, but one of those typical wrong details in Buckleming episodes, where it just honestly doesn't seem like they know the characters very well.

Lucifer and Michael have a fight in the Bunker and Michael takes Lucifer out really, really easily. So like. Remember when the first five seasons of the show were the buildup to the Apocalypse, and Sam sacrificed himself for an eternity in Lucifer's Cage to stop it from happening? Apparently a fight between the two archangels is just a bit of fisticuffs, nothing to get worked up about. That annoyed me. But I guess consistency has never been something this show has cared much about...

Supernatural: Despair (15x18)

I'm having an out of body experience, I cannot believe this. Last night was legitimately one of the weirdest nights of my life, and not just because of *gestures broadly* but also because of *gestures broadly* and myriad other small but still totally bizarre personal things coming at me from all angles... strap in, y'all, I've got some shit to say.

Cons:

We're gonna talk about it. Ohhhh, we're gonna talk about it. But let's start with some other shit before we get there.

So... are we ignoring "Dean was willing to let Jack sacrifice himself" or something? Like there was that moment with Sam and Dean where they talked about it, and Dean apologizes for pulling a gun on Sam, and Sam is like "oh it's okay Dean, no worries." But at the beginning of this episode, Dean seems to be just as worried for Jack, and as protective of him, as the others, with absolutely no acknowledgment of what happened in the last episode. This... should have mattered. There should have been some regrouping and some serious talks about this. Seriously.

Supernatural: Unity (15x17)

It's weird, I would have bet good money on this being a Buckleming episode, given how crowded it felt. But no, we're saving those chuckle-fucks for the penultimate episode, which just bodes... really super great and awesome.

Cons:

Like I said, this shit was crowded. In the span of one episode, we learn what Jack's final task is, learn what his weapon is and how he's going to use it to kill Chuck and Amara, see him implement said plan, and then fail at it, the episode ending with him on the verge of death with no outlet. It all happened lightning-fast.

And on the flip-side of that? I'm really feeling the pressure, considering there are only three episodes left, and I'm starting to get mighty nervous that our friend Castiel might not survive next week's outing. The trouble is... why has this whole last run of episodes been about Dean resenting Jack? Like, is there not enough else going on? The plot twist in this episode is really actually quite good, and it appeased one of my biggest worries about a way they might end the show in a really dumb fashion. But it's replaced by other concerns, one of which being that the Jack conflict feels manufactured, and has been given center stage for the end of the whole show. Jack is great, but why is Jack the main character after fifteen years?

Supernatural: Drag Me Away (From You) (15x16)

 So like. Hmm. I... hmm. I don't really know.

Cons:

Honestly, I have no problem whatsoever with the fact that this is a "filler episode". I think people are forgetting that even in the best days of Supernatural, many of the episodes, even pushing right up against climactic finales, were your basic MOTW stories, woven in with themes and character development that had a bigger impact on the A-plot. So that's fine. No complaints in theory.

But... okay, so, young Sam and Dean have the story of Sam talking about going to college and Dean being like "no that's stupid" and then Dean not letting Sam go on hunts, and then at the end Dean softening a bit and saying "I don't know about college... but we make a good team." Sound... familiar? It's... the entire seasons-long subplot about Sam and Dean being at odds about the hunting lifestyle. Sam wanting to be "normal" while Dean wants to hunt and make his dad proud. Okay, I understand this was a huge theme of their childhood, but GUYS. We've got four episodes left after this. Is this a theme that's important to the end of the show? Are we still debating where Sam wants to be, what he wants to do with his life? I thought this had been settled. Ad nauseum. A lot of the flashback stuff with the Winchesters felt like a serious retreading of ground. Not only was this what the first season of the show was largely about, it's also been a significant element in almost every episode where we've seen younger Sam and Dean, in any capacity.

Supernatural: Gimme Shelter (15x15)

I saw a lot of people on the interweb complaining that this was a time-wasting episode, and since there's so little of the show left, it felt pretty pointless. I don't know if I'd totally agree, but I do admit to having some trepidation about how much plot we still have left to cover!

Cons:

We all thought, based on the promo, that Cas was going to finally tell Sam and Dean about his deal with the Empty. But no, it's actually about how Jack will die in the process of killing Chuck and Amara. Here's the thing: if this is actually the direction the show goes, it will be absolutely banana bonkers, and a terrible decision in every way. The show has set up a couple of interlocking themes in its latter seasons: 1) not all supernatural creatures are actually monsters, and 2) self-sacrifice for the sake of "destiny" is a terrible plan. Free will rules the day. So... if in the end it's like "screw you, Chuck, we have Free Will, but we are going to listen to his other cosmic entity (Billie) and sacrifice Jack for the greater good because she told us it was the only way", then they've just completely destroyed their whole freakin' message. I'm putting this in the "cons" section because I want to lodge an immediate complaint about that potential ending. If that's where they take this thing, they're freakin' idiots.

On a lesser note, I do want to say that splitting up Team Free Will 2.0 was a bit of a bummer. Yes, Jack and Cas' adventure was fun, I liked that Sam and Dean were essentially a subplot for once... but I want more interaction between the four of them. As this episode ends, Cas is immediately leaving again. I don't like that at all!

Supernatural: Last Holiday (15x14)

 We're back, baby!!

Cons:

The same problem I always have with Supernatural was definitely on display here, that of clunky exposition in C-plot episodes. I wish they could find a more organic way of catching us up with the main story points, instead of just having Sam awkwardly tick them off on his fingers: "oh, remember how Jack has his soul back, and we have to kill God?" It's like... yeah, Sam. Yeah, I do remember that, thank you.

I feel robbed that we didn't get to see Sam and Eileen's date, but honestly I'm delighted that she was mentioned.

Pros:

This was a standard, familiar, comfy C-plot Supernatural episode with a nice little focus on Jack and his relationships with the Winchesters. Nothing fancy, nothing groundbreaking, but just the kind of comfort food that you love to see as we get ready to say goodbye for good.

The Walking Dead: A Certain Doom (10x16)

 Guess who doesn't care? Me! I don't care!

Cons:

Trying not to be super jaded and negative here, but this episode just completely bored me. It seems like we're entering the final stage of this show, as it's been announced that after an extended season ten and season eleven, The Walking Dead will come to an end. But not really, because there are all these damn spin-offs now and I just don't care! I ain't a quitter, so I'll see this shit through to the end, but I will not be following these characters on to their future homes. I just don't have the patience for it.

While watching this episode I found myself zoning out and missing things, and just kind of generally lost in the miasma of the goal and how it was being accomplished. So Daryl, Carol, Lydia, et. al are trying to do away with the Whisperers once and for all, and it seems like they accomplished that? With several dramatic moments where we're supposed to fear for Lydia or for Gabriel or for Carol or whatever, and then in the end Beta dies kind of unceremoniously and we're just done with that whole threat? This show has a serious tension-management issue. They stretch out their villains until they've squeezed every ounce of threat from them, and then the actual ending of it all is quite anticlimactic.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The End Is at Hand/What We're Fighting For (7x12/13)

 And so we're at the end! Let's dive in.

Cons:

I wish I could give a different response, but a lot of this finale had me feeling a little cold. It's not that it was bad, but all the time spent on Kora and Garrett and on other characters who I don't give a shit about... it felt wasted to me. Kora showing up, and the whole "hello sister" thing, like she's Damon from The Vampire Diaries or some shit... and the redemption arc... all of it felt so telegraphed, and so unsatisfying, seeing as Kora is a new character who we haven't had time to get to know. Daisy's emotional arc ends up being about two characters who were only introduced in this season: Daniel and Kora. I liked the stuff with Sousa, but come on! It's supposed to be about family or whatever... Kora is brand new, there was no time to make it land.

The fact that the whole plan hinges on Kora, and on connecting with Daisy... I loved what Daisy said in last week's episode, about how Simmons is her sister and that's where her focus should be. Found Family > A stranger that you just met who happens to share blood with you. Yikes.

And then I thought about the characters they chose to bring back, and the characters that didn't get even a mention. What about Bobbi and Hunter, for goodness' sake?!

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Brand New Day (7x11)

Well, S.H.I.E.L.D. is being destroyed... this is getting pretty wild!

Cons:

I don't care about Kora. I'm sorry. I want to, I want to be compelled by this drama, but it just doesn't do much for me. We have this episode where all kinds of relationships are being explored: Daisy and Daniel, Fitz and Simmons, Simmons and Deke, Mack and Daisy, May and Coulson... and then have screen-time at the end devoted to Kora and Nathaniel? Who gives a crap?

It was painful to see Fitz for this brief moment in flashback. I understand that people who looked into the background of the show might have known all along that Fitz literally wasn't going to be in the season at all beyond a few moments (except the finale, one would assume), but I feel cheated. I didn't realize it was going to be the whole time. I kept holding out hope that he'd show up in the end-credit stinger, and every time he didn't, it really was disheartening. I liked seeing him, but it was almost worse to have him so briefly!

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Stolen (7x10)

I've got to admit, I get a little lots in the weeds with this whole Inhumans plot, and I feel like it's less connected to the things about the season that I've actually enjoyed up to this point?

Cons:

Like, I'm sorry, but so much screen-time was used on Gordon and on time-streams and on Nathaniel Malick, and I just don't really give a crap. It feels so disconnected from everything. The most compelling part here is Daisy's family connection, to Kora and to Jiaying, and that gets less screen-time than a young version of a future-villain (John Garrett) who doesn't have any emotional resonance in the story anymore. I don't have a problem with any of the pieces here, but the combination/balance felt off, if that makes sense.

Actor availability aside, every episode that I watch, I keep thinking how much richer it would be if Fitz were there. Iain is the most talented actor on the show, and he brings a real dynamism to many of the other characters, and as much as I've been having fun with this season, I definitely do miss him in a very real way. This episode, since it was so time-heavy on elements that didn't interest me, I feel like I missed him more than ever.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: As I Have Always Been (7x09)

I am feeling some kind of way right now.

Cons:

Missing Fitz hours continue... especially in light of Certain Events. I wish he could have been there.

Also... like... while I was watching Daisy and Daniel being adorable, I literally said out loud to the screen: "oh no, they're going to make me like this, aren't they?" and they DID and I DO, but I refuse to let go of the cold bitterness in my heart over the way Peggy Carter was treated by the MCU as a whole. I'm just quietly seething about it forever and ever amen. Setting that aside, I do think Daisy/Sousa works, and I can let go of my rage if I just ignore the other stuff and focus on this as its own universe with its own version of Daniel's fate. To be slightly critical, though, I feel like Daniel taking things in stride makes a certain amount of sense given who he is as a person, but I do wish we'd seen him do some more grappling with his new reality. Does he not want to go and see if any of his friends are still alive, decades older, now? Does he not miss ANYTHING about the life he left behind? Suffice to say, I'm feeling conflicted!

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: After, Before (7x08)

Elena gets her groove back!

Cons:

I really loved focusing on May and Elena for a good chunk of this episode, but the story felt somewhat crowded and also oddly... muted, by bringing in not only Jiaying (it was cool to see her again), but also a host of other people living at Afterlife, like Kora, and the guy working with the Chronicoms... etc. I didn't dislike the story, but it crowded up the frame, so to speak.

Still missing Fitz hours, folks...

Pros:

But like I said - focusing on May and Elena in this episode was such a treat. They have a good odd couple energy, honestly. May is still emotionless herself, but she's starting to pick up on how other people feel even without needing to touch them. Elena, meanwhile, is obviously stressed nearly to the breaking point, because if she can't get her powers fixed, she might not be able to perform a key function that will save the ship and allow them to get back home to their own time. So the negative energies are just feeding between them, growing in intensity.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Totally Excellent Adventures of Mack and The D (7x07)

I mean, this was a lot of fun, obviously. What else is there to say?

Cons:

You all know what I'm going to say. I freakin' miss Fitz. He wasn't even mentioned in this one!

Pros:

As soon as I realized that Deke and Mack were going to be settling in to 1982, I immediately thought Deke would try to invent technology early/buy in on stocks for things he knew were going to make it huge. Basically, the same thing he did back in the 2010's, using his future knowledge from the Lighthouse. And we sort of got that - only we got Deke becoming a musician, and "writing" a bunch of famous '80s music that hadn't come out in '82. I loved it! So great! This is what I'm talking about with the show having a lot of fun with the various decades/motifs. Deke saying, with full confidence, "I wrote this song," and then playing the SUPER recognizable opening to "Don't You Forget About Me" was honestly so funny.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Adapt or Die (7x06)

Oh my gosh, poor Mack!! I'm going to rush my way through this one, sorry.

Cons:

Are they setting up a Sousa/Daisy thing? I'm going to be honest, I'm not mad about it if so. I know I keep griping about this, and it's cool to see Sousa and I love his character... but I guess I'm still bitter about the fact that Agent Carter, an excellent show (better than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. honestly) has been done so dirty by the MCU. So there's this part of me that's salty that the setup and care given to Peggy and Sousa's relationship in that show has been tossed aside and can't even really be properly deconstructed here, as to say anything unfavorable about Steve/Peggy would be anathema to the brand or whatever. I'm gonna grump about it even as I'm glad to have Daniel Sousa along for the journey.

This episode wasn't as "fun" as the other ones, and it wasn't meant to be, which is fine - but I felt less immersed in the time period, less like I was seeing anything essential or specific about the decade. Hopefully '80s shenanigans come back in for next week's installment. That should be lovely.

Also - still missing Fitz big-time.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: A Trout in the Milk (7x05)

Project Insight? Ooooh.

Cons:

Seriously, did they just like - forget to tell us Fitz wasn't going to be in the season or something? I'm getting frustrated by his lack of presence or mentions. Very briefly, Deke asked Simmons about it, Simmons said she didn't know anything, and then we moved on. I'm annoyed.

I'm not going to repeat the whole rant from last week's episode, but I'm annoyed with the way that Sousa's life has been stolen from him. I think it's clear that the MCU doesn't really respect its TV properties as part of the continuity. All of Agent Carter was disrespected enormously by the end of Avengers: Endgame. And Sousa is the character who is arguably the most screwed over, in terms of the movie canon just... ignoring his whole existence and erasing him entirely. I guess I'm still very glad to see him around in the show, and hope he sticks around for a lot longer. But... dude, it's really annoying to me that he was supposed to just... die. And now he's been pulled out of his own time? That doesn't feel remotely fair to him, and I just wanted to reiterate that.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Out of the Past (7x04)

I have some complaints, but over-all I did have a lot of fun with this one!

Cons:

Obligatory complaint about no Fitz. Seriously - this episode didn't so much as mention him! Really frustrating. I hope there are at least one or two good episodes featuring lots of Fitz before this show wraps up for good. I miss him terribly.

Also... what the Marvel overarching canon did to Daniel Sousa is kind of unforgivable. We get a throw-away line that implies that he and Peggy fell apart because of work reasons. In at least one version of events, Steve Rogers travels back into the past and fucking steals Sousa's whole future, and Peggy's too. So that's... not great. But just the idea that his legacy, his fate, is to die? Yikes. Sure, our heroes save the day... but they do so by erasing Sousa from history entirely. I just think that's such a sad fate for such a fun character.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Alien Commies from the Future! (7x03)

My boy Daniel Sousa!!

Cons:

This whimsical trek through time has a lot going in its favor, and I do appreciate that we're not totally ignoring the impact of racism and sexism on the ability of several of the agents to do their jobs. I guess I'm kind of hoping/kind of dreading the furtherance of this plot element. It's one thing to hear from May after the fact that someone called her an "oriental," or to see segregated bathrooms in a diner. Are we going to go further with the racial injustice? I hope not, and yet at the same time this mostly sanitized version of history is also not quite sitting right with me. I feel like the show is kind of trying to have it both ways, which is a little troubling.

So, it's been a while since I watched Agent Carter, but I thought Peggy and Daniel more or less ended up together? Here's the thing... I can't tell if this is part of the Endgame time-line where Steve went back in time and behaved like a selfish ass, or if this is another timeline, where Peggy had a life without Steve. In either case, what's the situation with Daniel being all weirded out at the thought of Peggy being at the station? And people calling him "Peggy's old partner"? Did they drift apart? Have some sort of falling out? I am not about that. I wanted them to have happiness together, at least for a time.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Know Your Onions (7x02)

I'm definitely more on board with this week's episode than I was last week!

Cons:

Still no Fitz... I'm getting a little nervous about how little we know of Simmons and Fitz's time together before the time travel began. Here's my off-the-cuff guess that I hope is wrong. They lived a full life together, grew old, etc. etc. and then had to part ways. Simmons is actually an LMD so that the rest of the team doesn't know for some reason; her real body is somewhere else, and elderly woman - maybe even dead? I know I'm probably nowhere close to right, but I just had to put the theory out there so I can seem super smart if it turns out to be true. The point, really, is that I'm worried Fitz is hardly going to be in this season at all, and we won't really get to see Fitzsimmons live out any of their happily ever after. That would be a huge bummer.

I'm not super interested in May's story yet. I think I probably will be soon, but thus far it's a shrug from me.

Is that the last we'll see of Enoch? Is he just... stuck in the 1930's now with Koenig? That would also be a bummer.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The New Deal (7x01)

I hate to say it, but a lot of this stuff is just not that interesting to me. There are hints of the show that I once looked forward to eagerly, but for the most part I'm feeling a little bit... tired.

Cons:

So, there's a scale when it comes to characters coming back from the dead on TV shows. It can be done right, like in the case of Buffy, or can can be done lazily, as in the case with any character on The Vampire Diaries, or it can be done in a way that seems lazy but becomes the fabric of the show and part of the larger point, like, arguably, in Supernatural. Coulson's resurrection... I'm sorry, but I'm putting it firmly on the "lazy" side of things. His death at the end of Season Five was one of the most beautiful main character deaths I can remember seeing on a show. It was appropriate within the tone and the narrative, it had a good buildup, there was a sense of inevitability and yet up until the very end, you were watching still hoping for a miracle that would save the day after all.

And then he was back as a villain for a season, and now he's just... back. Okay, sure, he's an LMD, and I'm sure they'll do some exploring with that. But Clark Gregg just... being here, being all Coulson-ish, kind of erases the impact of that beautiful death two seasons back, doesn't it? The show isn't really getting a chance to explore a new dynamic, because the gang's all here.

Outlander: Never My Love (5x12)

I... Have... Issues.

Cons:

I don't want to blame the show-runners too much for the story-line with Claire, as it is lifted straight from the books. But do you know what occurred to me as I was watching this? The rape was actually completely unnecessary to the story. Like - seriously. Change nothing else. Show Claire being beaten and bloody and tied up, and it's awful and it's hard to watch and the performance is raw and honest and all that jazz.

But why rape? Why rape again? We've already had a story-line about Jamie being raped, and a story-line about Brianna being raped. At some point it's just torture porn. And the fact that she is sexually assaulted makes Jamie and the other men's journey feel like this really gross macho revenge fantasy. Again, I know this is all lifted straight from the books. And let me tell ya - it's one of my least favorite things in the books, too.

Westworld: Crisis Theory (3x08)

This season of Westworld was not very good. After watching this finale, I'm left with a rather empty feeling.

Cons:

So, all along, Dolores was trying to save humanity, because humans taught her the good and beautiful things about the world, not just the dark, broken ones. She wanted to give Caleb, and other humans, the gift of free will, breaking them free of the super computer or whatever. This theme of free will is so basic and so cheesy that even Supernatural does it better. I felt like rolling my eyes during Dolores and Maeve's final conversation.

I just... don't care about these characters and their relationship. There's a moment when Bernard and Stubbs are having something of a heart-to-heart, and I actually think both actors are doing a good job of imbuing the relationship with a lot of meaning and grudging affection. But the story itself has not earned this. We haven't seen them together as friends, we haven't been given a chance to really sink in to their dynamic.

Outlander: Journeycake (5x11)

I... have some problems, y'all.

Cons:

I'm not even going to sit here and talk about all the things that are different between the book and the show, because I actually think plenty of the changes were for the good, here. But one thing I will say is that Roger, Brianna, and Jemmy leaving to go back through the stones felt incredibly unmotivated. I know they talked about it earlier in the season, and agreed that they would go through if it turned out Jemmy was able. But in the book, Brianna's daughter is sick and will die without a surgery that can only be performed in the future. They all have to go. Here, the reason is a lot more nebulous, and I kept thinking - what's your actual hurry? What is your reasoning for leaving now? The war coming? Yeah, I mean I get that, but still. Bonnet is dead, there's no immediate, personal threat... it just felt like they decided to leave because the narrative needed them to decide that.

The way the story is changing, I'm starting to wonder if season six might be the final season of Outlander. They're taking some big shortcuts, changing some big elements, and it feels like they're wrapping things up instead of expanding for future developments. I'm... oddly okay with that, but it does make certain existing moments in the story feel underrepresented.

Westworld: Passed Pawn (3x07)

Hey so guess who doesn't care about Westworld? Me, apparently. I swear I watched this whole episode with my eyes glazed over.

Cons:

So I guess Caleb was part of Serac's plans? This doesn't work as a big reveal like the episode wanted it to be, because... kind of... duh? We knew he was an important cog in the machine, we knew he was having memory lapses, we knew every human was being monitored and controlled. So we see that Caleb killed his friend, the one he has been mourning all this time, because his friend was going to kill him. We see how he was used as an assassin after the war. I don't know, it all rang kind of hollow for me. I think because I don't know Caleb as anything other than a pawn. He was a pawn when we met him, and I was vaguely interested in finding out more, but now here we are and I just can't access the visceral horror I think I'm meant to feel.

Outlander: Mercy Shall Follow Me (5x10)

I am of two minds about a lot of things in this episode, and we should probably just dive straight in.

Cons:

I am profoundly grateful for the way the Stephen Bonnet story has been streamlined in the show, as it stretches on into the sixth book in the novel versions. Bonnet is not a fun character to spend time around. He's... well, Black Jack Randall was so chillingly evil that he was interesting to watch. Bonnet never achieves that level of evil, or at least he does not do so consistently.

My biggest problem with Bonnet here is that he is shown to be unhinged, to have some sort of damage in his heart, to want more out of life. There were moments, when Brianna was teaching him how to eat properly, or when he was reacting to the ending of Moby Dick, where he took on a sort of child-like aspect. I was seriously not a fan of any of this. It was like they were trying to give him some pathos, to make us think maybe he really did care about making a family with Brianna and Jemmy. When in fact, it would have worked just as well for his motivation to be purely monetary, as he tries to get his hands on River Run.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Lights Out (7x13)

I can't believe we've reached the end of the season so soon! The weirdness of the world has really distorted my sense of time and reality, let me tell ya...

Cons:

There isn't a lot that I'd truly complain about in this episode, but there was quite a bit that just had me... shrugging. For example, Rosa helping Amy during her labor was funny, but not super funny. And Hitchcock and Scully's food obsession fell pretty flat; we've seen it all before at this point! These are not things I hated about the episode, they're just things I felt sort of neutral on.

Also, as this is the finale, I feel like now's a good time to discuss the pacing of the season overall. I gotta be honest - it felt rushed. Early on, I assumed that Holt's demotion was going to give us an opportunity to introduce some new faces to the crew, to play with different dynamics as various folks came in as temporary captains. But no. We got that once, and then it was just Terry, and then Holt was back, with very little fanfare. The same can be said of Amy and Jake becoming parents. We saw that they were having a hard time getting pregnant, then suddenly Amy was pregnant, and before I knew it, here we were, and she'd given birth to her baby. It didn't allow for a lot in the way of interesting stories to be told with regards to their impending big life change.

Westworld: Decoherence (3x06)

Parts of this episode had me saying oh damn, and other parts had me yawning.

Cons:

The yawning parts were William's therapy sessions with other versions of... himself? This felt like a less interesting, more sloppy way of examining the same ground we already covered with his character. I loved the ambiguity of where we last left him. Institutionalized, taunted by Dolores, alone but constantly haunted. And here I felt like we just got more of the same. William doesn't really... fit with the bigger story being told, and I felt his presence here like an intrusion, in a way I don't think I was meant to.

Also, I just want to point out... we're six episodes in. There are only two more episodes of the season, and I for one feel like I'm just starting to get a sense of some of the key players and their motivations. It's a lasting problem with Westworld, but one I did want to highlight here. There's just too much going on!

Outlander: Monsters and Heroes (5x09)

This episode was chalk-full of so many adorable character moments!

Cons:

The main thing that got short shrift here was the killing of the buffalo. I don't care if the details are changed - I don't really remember the exact way it went down in the book anyway. What mostly annoyed me was that I didn't get a sense of what a big deal it really was, for them to snag a buffalo kill. Other things are going on - Jamie is on the verge of death, Marsali is having her baby... but I remember in the book, it was a huge deal that they managed to kill a buffalo. It could feed so many people. I wish that moment hadn't felt so out of the blue. It was disconnected from the rest of the story in a way that felt very... episodic? And sometimes that's how the story is, but it might have been better to either keep this part out, or shift it to another moment so we could give it the full narrative weight it deserves.

I understand tightening the pacing in order to create drama, but I was a little annoyed at Brianna running in at the very last possible second with her syringe, preventing Claire from amputating Jamie's leg. I never got the sense from reading the same part in the book that it was such a stark either/or situation here. Basically, if I recall correctly, Claire essentially opens up Jamie to the bone and pours penicillin mixture deep into the tissue, and then also injects it, all with the understanding that if it fails, they might still have to amputate. Here, it was presented like Brianna had come up with a miracle fix on the spot, and I didn't like the unnecessary heightened drama of that.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Ransom (7x12)

This episode was great! So much fun on every level.

Cons:

My bleeding heart wanted just a hint of Holt and Kevin being worried about Jake, though. The comedy of them both caring so deeply for their dog works really well, but there was a moment, after Cheddar has been returned to them, that I thought maybe they'd start panicking about Jake, too. When Holt beats up the bad guy, it appears to be entirely for Cheddar's sake, without even a hint that he'd been concerned for his friend and colleague being kidnapped. I could have used just a hint of feelings here, even though I understand that's not really what the episode was about.

The fumigation cold open with Hitchcock and Scully was perfectly fine, but it sort of felt like it was just there to give those two characters something to do in the episode, as it connected with nothing else going on. It felt odd and disjointed, like it could have been plopped down anywhere without consequence.

Westworld: Genre (3x05)

Hey, so Animal Crossing has consumed my life the past couple of days now that I finally have a Switch... which is my way of saying that I was definitely playing it while I watched this episode and I may or may not have any freakin' idea what actually happened.

Cons:

Just looking at the broad strokes, though, I wasn't a big fan of Serac's backstory, with his genius brother and the crazy all-seeing computer thing. The thing is... I want to care about Serac and his brother. I want to feel the tragedy inherent in Serac's monstrous decisions to run experiments on his own family member, but the whole thing is so high-concept and artsy that the humanity of it gets lost.

Caleb spends the episode high, but in my opinion it doesn't really add much to the episode? I'm not sure why the choice was made to name the episode after this aspect of it. And my god, that ending moment when Caleb thinks he's still hallucinating but it turns out people have returned to their "base natures" because Dolores has revealed how they will all die... yikes. This show purports to be deep, but that felt like some pretty hokey stuff to me. You're saying that the minute human beings get a text message announcing how they will eventually die, they'll just revert to beating each other up like it's the Purge or something? Puh-lease.

Outlander: Famous Last Words (5x08)

Ian! Oh boy oh boy. Let's dive in to this episode.

Cons:

Once again, I don't give a shit about Jocasta and Murtagh's romance, so seeing her grieving for Murtagh didn't really move me. This was an episode filled with grief and trauma from all angles, so it seemed kind of rushed, to include these little snippets of Jocasta, and not have the chance to linger on Jamie and Claire's grief instead. Since this episode covers months of time, it seems like our grief for Murtagh sort of happened off-screen. That's a bummer.

I liked Ian's return here, but I do wonder if his plot thread is going to replace (SPOILERS) the Fergus and Jamie story from the books? I hope not. That would make me a little sad.

While I'm not necessarily in to the medical grossness and disturbing visuals, I did think it was a bit of a bad choice to skip out on the immediate aftermath of Roger's near-death. That was such a viscerally intense moment in the books, and we flashed past it using the  "silent movie" method, which was... cool, I guess, but what it replaced was something I really did want to see.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Valloweaster (7x11)

Another twist on a heist! I love that they keep finding ways to make this fun.

Cons:

At the very start of the episode, when Amy was wearing a pumpkin costume, it was another meta reference to hiding her real-life pregnancy when Amy the character is not supposed to be pregnant yet. But because it was the very start of the episode, I got confused because I didn't realize we were in a flashback? This was probably me looking away from the screen at the wrong time or something, but I do aim to be thorough in my reporting so I thought I'd mention it. ;)

It was nice to see Cheddar in this episode, but I missed seeing Kevin, and I was kind of hoping Gina would make a surprise reappearance at some point. This is just wishing for what I can't have, so it's probably not fair to mark it down in the "cons" section, but honestly, I miss those guys.

Grey's Anatomy: Put on a Happy Face (16x21)

Teddy is the worst!

Cons:

Okay, obviously this was not initially intended to be the finale, so I shouldn't be too harsh on some of the dropped plot threads. Things were more or less wrapped up, but this doesn't feel like the kind of episode you bow out on, you know? You would think we'd have a bit more information on what's going on with DeLuca. You'd think we'd see Amelia and Link name the baby. You'd think Richard and Catherine would have it out. You'd think Owen and Teddy would confront each other. As it stands, so many things are one step away from the climactic moment of the plot thread.

Also, I'm glad Richard is okay, but I'll admit I was surprised by how quickly this whole thing with him losing his mind got resolved. I figured that once they'd figured out what was wrong, maybe after the surgery there would be some time where they had to wait for the poison to get out of his system or something. But no, he wakes up and he's his old self again. I also feel like this kind of erases some of the compelling story beats where he was trying to get ready to say goodbye to his time as a surgeon due to his tremor. Is he just going to be back to surgery in no time?

Modern Family: Finale (11x17/18)

My eyes are totally dry, and I'm betting the show-runners wanted me to be crying. I didn't hate this finale. Hating it would require me to feel deep emotions, and I... don't.

Cons:

Gosh, I don't know, watching this hour-long finale just got me thinking about how I would have restructured this season. Turns out, Cam and Mitchell are moving to Missouri after all. Okay, cool. Why cram that in to the finale and not let it build over several episodes? Same with all three Dunphy kids suddenly moving out of the house. This finale introduced the idea that Alex had moved back in because she took a lower-paying job, then set up how chaotic the house is with so many people, and then had everyone start leaving. Why has this not been going on for multiple episodes? Why was Alex once again so underutilized all season, only to be crammed in to these final minutes like this?

Some of the characters' endings felt technically thematically appropriate, but also out of the blue at the same time. Luke got into college and is moving to Oregon. Cool? If only I could have been on the journey with him, as he submitted applications, as he made decisions about where he wanted to end up. Instead, this feels completely out of nowhere. Manny is taking a big trip to see the world. That feels appropriate for him because of how sheltered he has become, but it's also sort of a lesson we already learned with his character.

Schitt's Creek: Happy Ending (6x14)

Y'all when I tell you I cried... gosh. This was just so perfect and lovely, and it's exactly what I want to be feeling after watching a finale of a show like this. Gorgeous.

Cons:

I honestly... don't really have any? I guess maybe it felt like Roland and Jocelyn and Twyla got slightly short-changed by this finale, but that's a nitpick. The focus was where it was supposed to be.

Pros:

Where to even begin?? I love a show that can be cheesy without feeling over-wrought or unrealistic, and this finale hit that spot for me. You have all of the "I love you" moments between all of the family members. It might seem like a simple thing, but hearing Alexis tell her mother that she loves her, hearing Johnny and Moira say that to their kids, hearing Stevie say it as Johnny and Moira drive off... it's just so perfect and meaningful and sweet.

And Patrick and David's wedding... god, it means so much to have something like this, to have the finale of the whole show be centered around this wedding between these two men, to see the whole town rallying around them and supporting them. Sometimes I get annoyed that every sitcom wedding has to have some catastrophe, and when I heard that the venue was ruined because of the weather, I was prepared to roll my eyes. But this show is so absolutely amazing at taking a concept you'd think would be played out, and then adding to it, or contextualizing it, or just imbuing the characters within it with so much pathos and humanity, that I don't mind a cliche or two.

Westworld: The Mother of Exiles (3x04)

I'm at the point with this show that talking about the plot is kind of fruitless. There's tons of good shit going on here, but I'm not really going to break it down for you vis a vis plot summary, because to be frank, I'm not sure I can untangle all the messiness.

Cons:

I find Serac's Big Brother thing, where he's trying to find the best way to map a human's brain, kind of mustache-twirly and too basic for a big bad villain. It's not bad, but he gets a little bit more explain-y than I would normally like.

Pros:

Dolores!! Holy moly mother of god, I did not see it coming that all of the pods that Dolores brought with her were just copies of herself!! So we've got Tessa Thompson playing Dolores, and at least two other hosts going about Dolores-ing with the best of 'em. That's intense and crazy and I can't wait to see how that all shakes out. Clearly there's Dolores Prime, the most evolved version, but she's manipulating and using herself in the way that humans used to use her back in the park. This is some twisty shit! I assume they're not a hive mind, but how much independence do they each have?

The Walking Dead: The Tower (10x15)

It looks like the finale of The Walking Dead has been postponed because of COVID-19, so this is where we will be leaving these characters for a while. How does this episode hold up as a finale? Let's dive in!

Cons:

I think Daryl and Judith are adorable and I always like seeing them together, but their scenes in this particular episode didn't really work for me the way I think they were supposed to. Far too sentimental, if I'm being honest. It just felt like Daryl was making a declaration that "I'll never leave you... but I can't promise because we don't know what's going to happen," specifically so people can be scared he's going to die. Now, I don't think they'll kill Daryl off. I think he's one of the last things holding this show together, honestly. But that whole moment with Judith seemed designed specifically to tease the potential of him getting hurt or dying or disappearing soon. I hate that kind of plodding, heavy-handed foreshadowing. And Judith was a little bit too "kid on TV" for me this week, with her pathetic little voice saying she doesn't want Daryl to leave her like Michonne did.

Also... Negan telling Lydia that he tied her up to keep her safe is such malarkey. It makes no sense that Lydia was ever tied up in the first place; it was so clearly just done to fool the audience about Negan's loyalties.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Admiral Peralta (7x10)

Jake is going to be such a good dad!!

Cons:

I'm going to be That Person and talk about the whole gender reveal thing. It's such a weird idea, and the pink and blue color scheme is so prescriptive, and it feels very dismissive of the fact that not everyone is comfortable with the gender they were assigned at birth, and the fact that some people are intersex or genderqueer or what have you. And I felt like the show kind of tried to acknowledge that, by having Jake call it a "sex reveal" party instead of "gender reveal" and having him say it's about the "biological sex of the child." But it felt odd to include that story at all, without actually grappling with it in any meaningful way.

Pros:

Amy and Rosa have a short little plot with Hitchcock and Scully, where they yell at the men for messing up on a case by forgetting to write down the name and contact information for a key witness. However, it turns out they were protecting the witness, who is undocumented. The case is therefore unable to go forward, and Amy "punishes" Hitchcock and Scully by giving them leave with pay. I liked how this plot thread played with the idea of Hitchcock and Scully's incompetence but then landed somewhere more interesting instead. And I also like how this little story touches on an actual issue without turning it in to a Very Special Episode kind of thing.

Grey's Anatomy: Sing It Again (16x20)

Okay Amelia and Link are actually the cutest, y'all.

Cons:

Teddy and Owen being all ooey-gooey and let's get married right now!!! Is just... nothing to me. It means nothing. I feel nothing. Especially after an episode that so heartbreakingly focused on Tom Koracick and his own personal tragedy, where Teddy was able to drop everything and support him. They are one thousand times the more compelling couple, and even if I still cared about Owen, the fact that Teddy hasn't been honest about her affair with Tom makes any potential of rooting for them just go down the drain for me.

I also somewhat hate it when the patients' lives are really clumsily tied in to the doctor's experiences... the woman who starts hearing songs and singing everything makes Owen realize "I would sing for you, Teddy." Like... what does that have to do with anything? Also, while I thought the devotion between the couple was really sweet, the singing actually did start to get on my nerves in a real way. Lots of second-hand embarrassment.

Modern Family: I'm Going to Miss This (11x16)

This was fine. Very nostalgic. Appropriate for a penultimate episode of a long-running sitcom. It didn't really make me feel any feelings, though?

Cons:

Manny, Jay, and Joe have the weakest of the plot threads, as Manny and Jay get over-competitive about wine tasting. They find a commonality in Jay's appreciation for the wine, and Manny's competitive spirit. There were gay jokes that felt totally out of place, and the whole thing ended on a weak joke of them both walking away without seeing who won the contest, and then Manny running back to check. I didn't despise watching this, but I didn't feel like it had anything new or moving to say, and it didn't make me laugh.

While there were some funny moments in the Dunphy plot, I thought Claire afraid of being labeled as a grandma was a little overplayed. The instant she started to be worried about it, I was already bored. I did like that Phil seemed far less concerned, though!

Schitt's Creek: Start Spreading The News (6x13)

I am made of emotions! Holy shit, I can't believe next week is the end. Let's dive in to what I consider to be pretty much a perfect penultimate episode.

Cons:

While I ultimately come down very favorably on Patrick and David's story this week, I will admit that I'm not a fan of the trope of people making huge extravagant purchases as a romantic gesture. It happens in The Office, it happens (sort of) in Gilmore Girls, and it's always bothered me. David could have found another nice gesture, and then just explained that he wanted to stay and buy the house.

Pros:

I'm nitpicking, though. I love that David was so focused on being full-steam ahead about New York that he briefly lost sight of his partners' needs, but that once he realized he had been negligent on that account, he immediately took steps to remedy it. David and Patrick are at the point in their relationship where conflict between them isn't going to blow up their whole lives. They are settled, they are secure. But that doesn't mean things are always going to be simple and perfect. Patrick was willing to move to New York to be with David, but for him it was a sacrifice. And then David realizes that he can make that compromise for Patrick, and stick around in town.

Westworld: The Absence of Field (3x03)

Ehhhh. Not as interesting to me as the first two episodes of the season.

Cons:

Are we really doing the whole "government surveillance Big Brother" thing? That feels so uninspired to me. We have Caleb and Dolores at the diner, where Dolores knows all of the details about Caleb's worst memory. The big plan? Dolores is going to disrupt the data flow from Incite. I guess the machine is called Rehoboam. So this is Dolores' main goal. She doesn't like government surveillance and she wants to stop it. I guess I like that her motivations are so straight-forward, but I feel like this story is such a cliche.

Also, we get all of this evidence that Dolores knows everything about Caleb's life, and then there's that moment where she says that "most people are easy to read, but you surprised me." I hated that, because I feel like she has the profile on him, and the answer to the question of why he didn't turn her in is pretty easy to understand. He's a struggling veteran with PTSD and a problem with authority. She just said that his path is likely leading him to suicide in a decade or so. It therefore doesn't make sense for her to be "surprised" by his decision to keep his mouth shut when a bunch of angry authority figures dangle him off of a cliff. It kind of undercuts her whole point.

The Walking Dead: Look at the Flowers (10x14)

I don't know how I feel about this episode. It kind of... passed me by. It felt like filler, even though some very important things happened.

Cons:

Carol has what she wanted - Alpha is dead. But predictably, that doesn't solve all of her problems, and she spends the episode alone, with the ghost of Alpha haunting her. "Alpha" tries to convince Carol that she is a danger to her loved ones, that she's lost so many important people because of who she is, and that if she goes back home to her remaining family, she'll be dooming them as well. It's all very Psychology 101, and frankly I'm annoyed with how Carol's behavior and motivations have shaken out this season. Of course she's going to be all screwed up because of losing Henry. And I don't mind exploring the nature of her grief. But her reckless behavior that has nearly gotten people killed (we still don't know Connie's fate), coupled with the fact that she had a secret plan with Negan all along... these things don't match up. They tried to explain it by having Carol ask Negan "what took you so long," but ultimately it just doesn't make sense to have Carol setting up a man on the inside and then also running after Alpha and trying to kill her personally.

Ezekiel gets this little subplot about whether he can contribute anything now that he's sick... it was just kind of bland, and Yumiko giving him a pep-talk felt unmotivated.

Outlander: The Ballad of Roger Mac (5x07)

Boy howdy. Let's dive straight in to this one... I'm going to put everything under the cut so as to avoid spoiling stuff.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Dillman (7x09)

We've got us a bottle episode, folks!

Cons:

It's weird that we had the reveal that Amy's pregnant, and then no forward motion on that plot point as of yet. I guess I'm just curious if they're telling people, or how much time has passed? It's unclear.

Pros:

JK Simmons! I love that guy, and he was hilarious as the titular Dillman. He's apparently the greatest detective Holt has ever worked with, which doesn't sit so well with Jake. He comes in, deduces the heck out of everybody, but it ultimately bested by Jake, who outs him about losing his job, and then by Boyle, who solves the glitter bomb case before Jake or Dillman can figure it out.

I just loved Dillman's deductions, the way he was so suave and sure of himself, and then the way he argued with his young manager at the craft store where he apparently works since he's been fired as a cop. And the button to the episode made me laugh, where Jake asks Holt who the new best detective is, now that Dillman has been dethroned, and Holt names some other person, who we've all never heard of before!

Grey's Anatomy: Love of My Life (16x19)

Okay... interesting. I think I really liked this episode, although I do have one big unfavorable thing to say, and a few other complaints...

Cons:

So at this point, Teddy is just a serial adulterer, then? The story of Allison, the woman she slept with, who was also dating their other roommate at the time... I felt bad for Allison. I felt bad for Claire. Do I feel bad for Teddy?  Um... that's a little bit harder to square. I will say, knowing that she's bisexual or at least open to dating women, and knowing that Amelia is kind of curious about that too, why didn't the two of them ditch Owen a long time ago and run off together??

No but seriously. I can't exactly feel sympathy for Teddy in this situation, when I find out that the whole Owen and Tom situation isn't the first time she's been involved in cheating. It's scummy and her whole speech about how "you can love more than one person at once" doesn't do much to change my mind. What if Teddy and Claire and Allison had all had a chat about it? They could have been poly. That would have been cool. As is, I'm liking Teddy less and less the more I know her. And while I'm not exactly Owen's biggest fan, I do think it's weird that Teddy never shared this with him... does he even know why his daughter has the name Allison? Jeez.

Schitt's Creek: The Pitch (6x12)

This was an excellent episode, and it gave me all sorts of feels!!

Cons:

I could have predicted that the pitch wasn't going to go perfectly, but I wish they hadn't gone with the somewhat cheap laugh of having Roland be the one to fall apart. He's got a dry mouth, and knocks over water during the presentation, and meanwhile Stevie is flustered while doing her part of the presentation, especially when the computer freezes. I actually think the message would have hit home harder if they had done a solid, smooth presentation and were still laughed out of the room because the investors are just snobs. The somewhat slap-stick-ish mishaps happening earlier on before they got their feet under them just didn't really do anything for me.

Pros:

But mostly, I loved everything about this episode. Stevie, Johnny, and Roland are off to New York for their big meeting, but there are bad signs from the start when it turns out that Johnny's main contact, and the reason they got the meeting in the first place, isn't even going to be there. It's obvious that Johnny is considered kind of a joke, and it doesn't help that he has two very nervous small-town partners who clearly have never worked in this environment before. What I love is that underneath the nerves and awkwardness, the idea is a good one, and they have put in their research. Johnny ends up giving a really strong pitch, and if it weren't for the fact that the people in the room were prejudiced against him before he even walked in, he would have had a good chance of success.

Supernatural: Destiny's Child (15x13)

So, the news has dropped that this will be the last episode of Supernatural for a while, as they've had to halt production due to COVID-19. I know there are bigger, more important things to be upset about, but I'm definitely upset about this! I hope they are able to be back at work before too long, but of course first and foremost I hope everyone stays safe!

Cons:

Sam and Dean's detour into Hell was such a dead-end that it was almost comical. I kind of like the fact that trips into Hell have become the equivalent of a milk run for these boys, but at the same time, it felt like a needlessly complex way to get them out of the way so Cas could find out the real answer. Maybe I'm nitpicking? Maybe I just wish I could have seen Rowena? Totally possible.

Pros:

This was a great episode. I had so much fun with it, all the way through. First of all, Gen and Daneel being in the same episode together, as Ruby and Sister Jo, was the kind of hilarious fan-service-y thing that you just love to see. It doesn't matter for the bigger scope of the story that these two women are Jared and Jensen's wives in real life. But it's just so silly and funny! They had one scene together, and they totally milked it for all it was worth.

Westworld: The Winter Line (3x02)

So far, so good! This show can be very convoluted, but I'm tracking this season thus far.

Cons:

Bernard is still a weak link for me. I liked parts of his plot thread, but the basic issue is that you can summarize this shit in two seconds flat: he's looking for Maeve, and he comes across Stubbs. The end. The rest of his stuff felt like filling time.

Someone explain to me why the fuck any of the parks are still active, after what happened last season? I know Westworld itself is shut down, but seriously... are there actually human beings still willing to go to any of the parks when they know the AI can go rogue and murder them? Seems like a stretch to me.

The Walking Dead: What We Become (10x13)

And so we say goodbye to Michonne!

Cons:

I found the ending of this episode incredibly moving, but I'll admit that everything in the lead-up to it was lackluster for me. The fact that Virgil was hiding something, the fact that his family was dead... none of that was a surprise. Sure, I wasn't expecting him to give Michonne hallucinogenic tea, but the idea that he was luring her there for a specific purpose, and that he wasn't being honest about what that purpose was... I mean, come on. Who wasn't expecting that?

The weird flash-back/distorted memory thing didn't really do much for me either. The idea of Michonne working with Negan, Michonne being killed by Daryl... what are we learning from this? What are we being told? I don't know. It just didn't resonate with me very well.

Outlander: Better to Marry Than Burn (5x06)

I am legitimately not sure how I feel about this rendition of Jocasta's wedding.

Cons:

First of all, and I cannot stress this enough, Jocasta is a motherfucking slave owner. The show would really, really like us to have sympathy for her, but even if the acting is compelling, and even if it's a tragedy that her young daughter was killed right in front of her, I can't really get past that teeny tiny little detail. It's even worse when a whole episode goes by where slaves are just out and about helping to set up a fancy party, but there is no textual acknowledgment of it whatsoever.

I'm also not really thrilled with this interpretation of Duncan Innes' character. In the books, I'm pretty sure he's not terribly older than Jamie, and while he and Jocasta are not in love with each other, they actually do have a great deal of tenderness for one another. It's very much a marriage of convenience and protection, but Jocasta is the pragmatic sort of person who accepts that at this stage in her life, and is well content to be with Duncan. That is, barring the fact that she does have another lover. But it's not Murtagh, it's [spoilers redacted]. I just don't feel great about him being this doddering old nobody who Jocasta seems to find vaguely irritating.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: The Takeback (7x08)

I love Doug Judy enough that I'd forgive this episode any myriad of sins. And it's definitely not sin-less.

Cons:

I'm glad that Holt is back to being the Captain, but I will freely admit my frustration that his demotion wasn't more of a plot point this season. It didn't lead to any meaningful character growth, and because Terry just took over for him, we didn't even get the excitement of a new character to shift the group dynamics. Also, given what a big deal it's supposed to be that Holt is finally back, why was this moment relegated to a subplot, where nobody but Terry and Rosa seemed to care?

The other subplot was honestly one they could have deleted entirely from the episode and I wouldn't care. Amy is in charge of picking out a new vending machine now that a broken outlet has been fixed. Predictably, Scully and Hitchcock have lots of opinions about this, and equally predictably, Boyle tries to go for some fancy weird one that only serves fish balls. In the end, the machine Scully and Hitchcock choose is installed, but it shorts out the lights because the voltage is too high, so everything returns to normal by the end of the episode. My prevailing emotion watching all of this was just kind of a general... shrug.

Grey's Anatomy: Give a Little Bit (16x18)

I knew Andrew was gonna be right... ugh... poor thing.

Cons:

I really cannot get a read on how I'm meant to feel about Teddy right now, but I basically think she's the worst. She's hurting Tom, she cheated on Owen, she seems completely selfish in all of her motivations. She thought Owen might have gotten another woman pregnant before they were even together, and because of that she slept with another man multiple times. Like... how am I supposed to feel sympathy? This whole plot thread is attempting to paint Owen as this super sweet, super good guy who is being hurt by those around him, but let's be real. Owen has the most terminal case of Nice Guy syndrome I've ever seen in my life, and he gets away with being emotionally unfaithful by giving puppy-dog eyes to everyone. I think he's boring and I think he's scummy.

The hospital is having a pro bono surgery day, and things are chaotic and way too busy, so Meredith extends the day, and says they're going to have pro bono surgeries once a month. This is after she finds out that the billionaire dude from last week's episode gave an insane amount of funding to the hospital, and she learns about Koracick's unethical practices to get that money. I agree that the American healthcare system is bonkers, and it's nice to see the show tackle that in a more meaningful way this season. But all of this just seems wacky to me. Can Meredith really make a promise like that? Wouldn't you think that doing something so ostentatious would draw attention to the hospital and make it more likely that Koracick's crime would be discovered?

Modern Family: Baby Steps (11x15)

There are only so many different ways I can discuss how this final season has felt stagnant and uninspired... but there was actually one good plot thread here, I suppose!

Cons:

I want to talk about Alex. Rarely have I felt like a main character on a television show has been so poorly utilized. Who even is Alex? In this episode, she goes back to her old college, encounters some protesters and her old professor Arvin, who make her realize that she's working for a big unethical company. So she decides to work for Arvin's research team instead, using her smarts for good instead of evil. Okay... what a nice little plot arc for Alex. Too bad it all happens in one episode. Did I know that Alex felt ethical qualms about her job before now? Did I know this was a dilemma for her? She also talks about her "glow up," about how going back to the school triumphant and successful will be a big moment for her. Is that something I knew she needed/wanted? Is she searching for validation? Alex's colleges years on the show were so strangely framed and never really properly set up, so...

Bottom line is, this is fine. Alex taking a job that will make her less money but will be helping the world seems like a great move for anyone to make. But I don't know this person. I haven't really gotten to know her as an adult.

Schitt's Creek: Escape Room (6x11)

This was really cute and I loved every minute!

Cons:

So now they're setting up the idea of Alexis needing to leave the nest and move away from the town, which I like and makes perfect sense... but it just reminds me again of Stevie's weird trajectory as a character this season. She was worried she hadn't seen enough of the world, so she tried to spread her wings. But then she immediately flew back to doing the same thing she started with, only now making it bigger. That's fine, but it doesn't match naturally with what she said she wanted. I keep wishing we could have seen her do a bit more exploring before she came back to the motel business.

Pros:

Johnny spends the episode waiting on a phone call from his old assistant, who is now a big-time investor. There's shenanigans, of course, where Roland mishears the name and doesn't deliver a message, and Johnny has to leave his phone outside of the Escape Room so he misses a call. But in true Schitt's Creek fashion, the scenario doesn't blow itself out of all proportion. Instead, we get good news - the investor is interested, and Johnny has a meeting set up with him! I love this success story, especially as it somewhat eclipses Patrick and David's bachelor party.