Supernatural: Just My Imagination (11x08)

I'm so happy I literally don't even know what to do. I cannot begin to describe to you how much I adored this episode. I was expecting it to be funny, and it was... but it was so much more than that. Let's jump right in.

Cons:

A teeny tiny complaint is that they didn't mention Cas at all. The only reason I'm even saying anything is because I absolutely love it when they toss his name in there at least once an episode, even if it's just to say "Oh, Cas is off doing research at such-and-such location." That's all I need to be totally content, so I always notice when they can't be bothered with even that much.

The other complaint is a bit more... complicated. Dean was kind of a jerk in this episode. I think what they were trying to show was that Dean's reluctance to accept the imaginary friends was because he was uncomfortable facing the truth that he hadn't always been there for Sam. But he just came across as kind of a dick, and I thought they could have toned it down a bit, or shown more of the complexities of Dean's feelings before the ending.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Closure (3x09)

Okay! This episode was pretty darn intense. I have one thing I want to discuss as a potentially troubling flaw, but the rest of the episode kicked ass.

Cons:

Rosalind Price was fridged. Pretty much by definition. She was killed by a man to hurt another man. There was, expressly, no other reason to kill her at this moment. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is usually better than that, and I was quite disappointed to see such a tactic being used here. I don't think it's a problem to kill off female characters in general, but I felt like all that buildup with Price's character was wasted here, since she was clearly only a means to cause Coulson to fall off the deep end. It feels disrespectful to her character.

And on a less righteous note, Rosalind Price was interesting to me. I was annoyed about the simplistic twist last week, where we learn that she was working for Hydra but didn't know it. But even with that being said, I greatly enjoyed the complexities of her character, and thought she still had a lot to offer in the story. It's disappointing to have that potential cut short.

The Walking Dead: Start to Finish (6x08)

Oh noooooo. Things are intensssssse. Let's just dive right on in.

Cons:

I don't think I really have any cons here. I mean, there's the fact that Deanna is dead (or about to be), and I was just starting to like her, but that's not a real criticism of the show so much as it is a personal complaint. Same goes for the lack of Daryl, Abraham, and Sasha. They showed up at the end of the episode, but I was really hoping that I'd get to see Daryl come back to Alexandria and reunite with some of our people in this episode.

In terms of serious complaints, I guess the only thing I've got is that one of the subplots didn't do as much for me as the others. As the Walkers swarm into Alexandria, several groups of our core characters attempt escape, using whatever means they can. One of these little groups consists of Carol, Morgan, the Wolf prisoner, and Denise, who was there to try and tend to the Wolf's injury. This plot thread is continuing the theme of Morgan vs. Carol/Rick in terms of ideology. Maybe it was just its placement in an episode that had so much else going on, but I found these parts sort of dragged down the pacing. I love Carol, but I want to see her interact with my other favorite characters. All this separation is wearing down on one of this show's real strengths, which is the relationships between its key players.

Once Upon a Time: Broken Heart (5x10)

I don't know... while in theory this episode should have been a total winner for me, there were a few things that just didn't fully click. It wasn't bad by any means, but I just feel... sort of disheartened. Let's talk about it.

Cons:

So, the main plot of this week's episode is dealing with the fallout of the revelation that Hook is a Dark One. We see how in Camelot he is angry at Emma, but Emma tries to convince him that they can defeat the Darkness inside both of them, as long as they work together. Hook seems to trust Emma, and Emma proves her trust in Hook by handing over Excalibur. Then it turns out... nope! Hook has fully succumbed to the Darkness. He decides to enact his own Curse to get back to Storybrooke - that way, he can finally get his long-awaited revenge on Rumple, who is still back there. Emma tries to stop him, but Hook crushes Merlin's heart as a way to enact the curse. This is a loophole - Nimue loves Merlin, so since she is all Dark Ones, it works the same way as Hook crushing the heart of the person he loves. Emma adds in a memory erasure to the Curse, erasing Hook and everybody else's memories of the fact that he's the Dark One. She figures this way Hook won't remember why he enacted the Curse to get back to Storybrooke in the first place, and this will protect him.

Doctor Who: Heaven Sent (9x11)

My eyes have rolled so far out of my head that they've fallen straight out of my skull and are rolling down the hallway and down the stairs and out the front door and... yeah, you get the point. Seriously. Screw this.

Cons:

I'm going to start by saying that I know that this episode got a lot of very positive reviews. Frankly, I'm astounded by that. I thought this was a whole lot of pretentious drivel and for the most part it barely held my attention. But, since I know I'm in the minority on that opinion, I am going to try and talk about the elements that worked well, and why I think this episode impressed so many people.

So, my main complaint is that this episode contains two "plot twists" that just did not work for me whatsoever. Basically, the Doctor is trapped in a place he can't quite figure out, and he seems to be stuck in a time loop. The only way to stop a terrible monster from killing him horribly is for him to reveal a secret truth. In order to protect the secret of the "hybrid," a mythic half-Dalek-half-Time Lord, the Doctor allows himself to be killed again and again as he struggles to break through a barrier to get out of the prison.

Elementary: All My Exes Live in Essex (4x04)

This episode was pretty solid! It didn't overwhelm me with awesomeness or anything, but I greatly enjoyed it. Let's get started.

Cons:

The subplot this week was good, but it felt very disconnected from the main plot. Basically, it featured a woman doing research on Joan out of revenge for Joan poking around in police officer's lives. This woman, Cortez, doesn't think it's Joan's business. I thought this plot thread had a lot of potential, and it actually could have been a main focus for an episode or two. But instead of exploring it to its full potential, it was wrapped up too quickly, and didn't connect to the episode's main story.

And speaking of main stories, I'm not convinced that anything in this episode had anything at all to do with the A-plot. That's fine in theory, but with a long season like this, it's disheartening to lose momentum for the main event. There was only one very small mention of the elder Mr. Holmes this week.

Castle: Mr. & Mrs. Castle (8x08)

Okay, I don't mean to be so negative but... what the hell was that?

Cons:

Castle and Beckett are back together, proving once and for all that their separation was total nonsense. Nothing but a cheap narrative ploy to mix up things that did not need to be mixed up. Castle learns the truth about Beckett's plans to take down these evil drug people, and he confronts Beckett, asking her why in hell she had to break up with him to do this. Beckett goes on with some nonsense about protecting him, but Castle shoots down that argument just as firmly as I've been shooting it down all season - he points out that Beckett could have told Castle the whole truth and then they could have staged a breakup and took down the bad guy together. Castle says that Beckett is clearly broken, needing the obsession to drive her.

All of this would actually be a good point if Beckett's real behavior had backed it up during the season. But she "pushed Castle away" in name only, continuing to see him on a regular basis, and not fighting very hard against his attempts to fight his way back into her life. How does that indicate a broken person unable to form a good relationship? And how is that supposed to protect him from the baddies? It makes no sense. And if that's the explanation we're going with, why on earth did Castle forgive her so easily? It's pretty weak.

The Walking Dead: Heads Up (6x07)

What the heck? What the what the what the what? I'm just... what?

Cons:

Why did they even bother to try and fake us out with the Glenn death thing? What a cheap marketing ploy! Like, I figured what with all the hoopla surrounding his death that he had probably miraculously survived. But to tell us that just a few episodes later makes no sense. Why even bother to do any of this? Why did we have to think that Glenn was dead? I mean, nobody believed it, first of all. And second of all, it's just such a slap in the face to the audience to pull a "just kidding!" that's so uncreative that literally every single fan of the show had already predicted the exact outcome. Nicholas' body was the one being torn apart, Glenn gets under the dumpster. Uninspired to say the least.

Doctor Who: Face the Raven (9x10)

I'm annoyed. Not surprised, but annoyed. Siiiiiiggggghhhhhh.

Cons:

I'm not mad that Clara died. Honestly, I'm not. I mean it was pretty obvious it was coming, but still, I felt like it was an okay ending for her character. The companions have too high of a survival rate anyway. And nothing else would ever make Clara leave her adventurous life with the Doctor. Death was the only way. But here's the thing -  Clara's death was all about the Doctor. Did you notice that? In her final moments, she told the Doctor not to seek revenge. Okay, fine. But she didn't mention her students, or her family, or anything freakin' personal about herself. I think she may have mumbled Danny Pink's name once, vaguely, but for the most part these final touching scenes were all about Clara comforting the Doctor in her final moments. Seriously! It's not Jenna Coleman's fault, but Clara just sucks as a character. Her entire life and death revolve around the Doctor to the point that it's absurd. How is it that a character who actually has a canonical life outside of the Doctor (being a teacher) could fail to have any personality outside of him?

Grey's Anatomy: Things We Lost in the Fire (12x08)

This episode did not feel like a mid-season finale. It didn't have any over-the-top catastrophe with multiple deaths. None of our principle characters are in physical danger. A few big moments are interspersed with a lot of smaller details. Despite it not feeling as big as a mid-season finale normally does, I still greatly enjoyed what I got.

Cons:

Normally, I don't mind the voice overs in Grey's Anatomy, even if they can be a bit hokey. This week, though, the whole "fire" analogy felt particularly forced. The fire itself was rather unnecessary. We could just as easily have had all the patient-based plot threads this week without trying to centralize things with a big disaster. The only thing this served to accomplish was to have Bailey handle her first serious catastrophe as chief. This idea wasn't given a lot of time to develop, so it almost felt like it could have been done away with altogether.

Speaking of very little time to develop, Penny had almost no screen time in this episode. Believe me, I'm not complaining about that on principle - I'm not exactly a big fan of Penny, as I find her character to be pretty boring as of yet. But in terms of the pacing of this season, I find it odd that her character didn't have anything to do in the mid-season finale. It seems like after all that buildup and the fallout of her identity, she should continue to play a bigger role moving forward.

The Vampire Diaries: Mommie Dearest (7x07)

Okay! This is an episode with a lot of things to love, and a few things to grumble about. Let's take a look!

Cons:

Caroline is pregnant with Alaric's twins. I'm sorry, but it's just weird. And they did a fake out thing where at first you think she isn't, but it turns out the babies were just cloaked, so they've been there the whole time. This is just... weird. I'm very uncomfortable with the idea of Caroline being pregnant when she had no desire to be, and in a situation where she can't make decisions about her own body because the babies aren't even hers. It's strange and it feels very forced.

Valerie is actually growing on me a little bit as a character, but I hate the fact that Valerie is the one to tell Caroline about the baby that she lost at Julian's hands. I really thought Stefan should be the one to do that. It seems like the Stefan/Caroline romance is being ripped apart before it really gets a chance to get underway, and I'm feeling frustrated by the missed opportunities.

The Big Bang Theory: The Platonic Permutation (9x09)

Aww... I actually felt really bad for Amy in this episode! Unfortunately, this installment was kind of a dud, with the exception of one plot thread. Let's take a look.

Cons:

This week, we get a look at our cast of characters as they celebrate Thanksgiving. Penny and Leonard prepare to host a meal for everybody, but they get into a fight about Leonard knowing Penny better than she knows him. It all starts with Penny not knowing Leonard's birthday. However, Leonard accidentally lets slip a piece of information that he learned from reading Penny's private journal, and the argument escalates. Leonard ends up wearing lingerie that he got for Penny in order to embarrass himself and get her to forgive him. Nothing about this plot thread was particularly funny, and it also didn't offer anything high-stakes. Their argument was mostly played for laughs, although in my opinion not knowing your husband's birthday is pretty awful, and invading your wife's privacy by reading her private journal is pretty despicable. I think we were supposed to find this little spat amusing, but it didn't really work for me at all. In addition, this was another example of this show wasting opportunities. I wanted to see Penny and Leonard host a big fun Thanksgiving dinner, but instead we only saw the prep work and no real final result.

Elementary: Tag, You're Me (4x03)

Ehhhh.... kind of a weak one in my opinion. Not terrible, but not strong. Let's take a look.

Cons:

The cases themselves have never been the strongest thing about Elementary, but often they draw my interest by bringing in an interesting moral or political question. This week didn't have that. I won't go into the details, but basically this week our case involved a website that matched up people who looked similar, and proved that certain facial recognition software had serious flaws. The murderer ended up being a cop avenging his brother's death in a frat party's hazing years ago, but the crimes multiply as we find out that one of the guys from the site set up the murders. Nothing about this really clicked for me. It sort of felt like a couple of different cases being squeezed into one. There were no particularly interesting revelations, and Sherlock and Joan's involvement in the case felt lackluster. This was their first week back with the NYPD, and I wanted a bit more.

Speaking of that, we didn't have any good scenes between Sherlock and Gregson and Bell, as they welcomed him and Joan back from their brief hiatus. I thought maybe there would be some good character moments there, but there was nothing special about this case at all. It felt like any other week.

Supernatural: Plush (11x07)

Supernatural is killing it this season with the C-plot episodes. Awesome! Let's take a look.

Cons:

This episode ends with a scene of Sam and Dean in the impala. Sam discusses his visions of the Cage with Dean, thinking that maybe that's where the answers are about the Darkness. We also see Sam praying to God at the beginning, asking for answers about what he's been seeing. All of that is fantastic, and I'm so excited to see where it's leading. But Dean is being way too dismissive about this. He keeps brushing off Sam's concerns, and it's getting ridiculous. If you don't want Sam to lie to you, maybe you should try and listen to him when he talks, Dean! I feel so bad for Sam, because he feels so alone right now with these visions. I wish that Dean would take him a little more seriously.

Modern Family: Phil's Sexy, Sexy House (7x07)

Very funny episode. Best we've had all year. This is one of those episodes that plays to Modern Family's strengths. A series of silly misunderstandings, interconnecting plots bringing all the characters together, and a clear theme. Very nice!

Cons:

The only slight misstep of the episode was Manny's subplot with baby Joe. It wasn't even necessarily a bad subplot, but it didn't get a lot of time to be fleshed out, and wasn't particularly stand-out in any way. Basically, Manny uses Joe's adorableness to win favor with a girl he's invited over. Joe doesn't behave, latching on to the girl's leg and biting, pretending to be a "bad dog." Manny puts Joe in Stella's cage to punish him. Like I said, this just didn't have very much to offer.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Many Heads, One Tale (3x08)

It happened. It finally happened. Oh my God. I cannot even process this. I've been waiting since the pilot episode and it finally freakin' happened. C'mon, you all know what I'm talking about. Let's... start with some other things, though.

Cons:

So the twist with the ATCU this week is that instead of trying to cure Inhumans, it looks like they're shopping out fish oil pills to as many people as possible, trying to get people to transform. I like this twist, but what I didn't like was the super obvious twist on the twist, which was that Rosalind didn't know about it. I know I'm being sort of fickle, because last week I said that I hoped she wasn't Hydra. And I stand by that. But it just felt sort of obvious. The more Coulson yelled at her to reveal the truth, the more clear it was that Rosalind didn't know what was going on. Maybe I would have felt a stronger connection in this scene if Coulson could have given Rosalind the benefit of the doubt, instead of just jumping to conclusions.

Castle: The Last Seduction (8x07)

This episode was such a confusing mix of annoying and wonderful. I'm really happy with a few things, but still aggravated by a lot. Let's take a look.

Cons:

Hayley was in this episode, and I'm still struggling to figure out what the hell she's doing in this story. This week, she helped Beckett by going under cover at a spa and trying to uncover a woman with an adulterous secret. Was Hayley really the only person who was available for this? Aren't there other women working at the precinct? And what is Hayley, exactly? Is she consulting with the NYPD? I'm confused and I'm struggling to find her character interesting. There was one jarring moment when she asked one of the suspects to tell her the name of her tattoo artist because she really liked her tattoo. No offense, but the tattoo was a really basic pattern on the lower back. It was annoying, because if Hayley was going to make a point of talking about it, shouldn't the tattoo actually look cool?

Vikram also made an appearance, to annoyingly point out to Beckett that she shouldn't be spending time with Castle because of the ongoing dangers of their illicit research. Go away, Vikram. You make no sense and annoy me greatly. 

Once Upon a Time: Birth/The Bear King (5x08/09)

Oh my Gosh we have so much to talk about here. This is going to be an insanely long review. But hey, it's a double episode, and both halves were awesome. Let's get started.

Cons:

Well... the fact that this is a double episode is rather puzzling. Each episode individually was awesome, but they barely connected at all. Maybe it was just a scheduling issue, but I feel like the double episode week could have been saved for a different point in the season. Previous double episodes have been continuations. This was not. It was odd, and the second episode, while very good, definitely cut off the momentum of the first episode, which did more to carry on the A-plot.

This is a small thing, but it really distracted me. The actress playing Merida's mom Elinor looked way too young. She looked like she was the same age as her daughter, or at most only ten years older. I'm not sure why it bothered me so much, except for maybe the fact that I feel like older women don't get nearly as many opportunities in Hollywood.

The Walking Dead: Always Accountable (6x06)

Yay, Daryl! I missed him. Unfortunately, this episode wasn't as good as one might have hoped. I'm pressed for time, so let's jump right in.

Cons:

The pacing of this episode just felt a little... off to me. It sort of dragged. There wasn't enough solid focus on one character for the slow pace to work, like in Morgan's episode a few weeks back. And there wasn't enough switching things up between the characters for my attention to be suitably grabbed all the way through.

The plot of the episode is pretty basic - Daryl, Sasha and Abraham get separated on their way back to Alexandria due to a group of strangers shooting at them. Daryl gets kidnapped by a couple of new characters who appear to be on the run from the folks with guns. All of this would be compelling, but the new characters were not at all interesting. I wish I had had something more to grab on to with these guys, but as it stands I just couldn't feel invested.

Doctor Who: Sleep No More (9x09)

Unfortunately, this was not a good episode. I don't have a lot of positives to mention at all.

Cons:

This episode was found footage, with a twist. But even with the twist, I still think that this found footage thing is getting really old. And if you can't come up with something new and totally fresh to do with it, you shouldn't bother. I'm not convinced this episode totally knew what to make of its found footage framework, and although there were a few cool moments, for the most part there wasn't anything creative about camera angles or anything. The whole story could have been told just as effectively without this element.

Mark Gatiss wrote this episode, and usually I can depend on him to come up with creative and distinct characters. But this episode just didn't have that. In many ways, the setup reminded me of the "Under the Lake"/"Before the Flood" double episode, what with it all taking place in an enclosed space, and the focus on a group of people in mounting peril. But that story worked mainly on the merits of the very distinct and memorable characters. This episode didn't really have any standouts at all.