Monday, October 18, 2010

Dramatic Discourse for week of Oct. 11: Low-Key Finales

MONDAY, OCT 11

Chuck (NBC, 7:00):  Now, this is what every episode of Chuck should be like; it had the perfect balance of comedy and drama, goofy without being cartoony.  Plus, the fact that there was zero Jeffster and lots of Awesome didn't hurt.

Castle (ABC, 9:00):  For the second week in a row, the central mystery is undercut by the show's trailers -- last week I knew long before the detectives that they had a treasure map on their hand, and this week I was all too aware exactly why the corpse had been stripped and why someone had been shooting at him with antique weapons. But I can't fault the show itself for the ABC PR flaks getting a bit over-zealous, especially since the trailer which showed this episode was going to have a Steampunk element had me waiting for it all week.  I wish they'd spent more time in the Steampunk club, but still a good episode.

TUESDAY, OCT 12

Parenthood (NBC, 9:00):  First of all, pretty sure the whole "can't get our kid to stop sleeping in our bed" plot would have given my parents flashbacks to my childhood.  Thank heavens they let Sarah do a good job working the booth -- I've really gotten tired of her screwing everything up.  Also glad they didn't stretch out the awkward section of the school interview too long.  My moment of cognitive dissonance came about from realizing that Amber's pot-smoking friend was played by Peggy's lesbian friend on Mad Men -- I had to looker her up on IMDB to make sure I wasn't imagining things, at which point I discovered that in real life she's actually David Mamet's daughter.

Sons of Anarchy (FX, 9:00):  Man, that opening scene with Tig and Lem* kicking the crap out of each other was more entertaining than the rest of this season combined -- how sad is that? 

WEDNESDAY, OCT 13

Terriers (FX, 9:00):  Even in the midst of a subplot I'm not a fan of -- seldom enjoy the "keeping an indiscretion a secret" style of plotline -- this show manages to suck me in.   Again, I hate the fact that this extremely well done show might not be around for a second season.


THURSDAY, OCT 14
 
Grey's Anatomy (ABC, 8:00): And the "gee, our patients lives sure do parallel ours eerily closely, don't they?" trend continues; didn't bother me quite as much this episode as it did last week, but seriously, guys, can't we just let the patients crazy lives be separate from the doctors' crazy lives once in a while? That being said, I enjoyed the episode overall.


SUNDAY, OCT 17

Rubicon (AMC, 8:00): Ugh.  So terribly underwhelmed by the season finale, especially with the uncertainty of whether it was the series finale or not still hanging in the air.  My biggest complaint was that dummy Will did not grab the flipping DVD that Kathryn was obviously holding out to him as she collapsed -- am I the only one who was kinda hoping he might get bumped off so that Miles could become the main character?  I mean, who wouldn't want to watch a show where Miles was being coached in espionage by Kale Ingram?

Mad Men (AMC, 9:00):  Well, that was . . . not at all what I expected. I honestly kept waiting for Don to wake up from a dream.  I was a bit surprised by the lack of Capital-D-Drama in the finale; yes, some big things happened, but very little that played into the tenser moments of the season, with the fate of the agency being mentioned only in the Peggy-centric B-plot.  I think all of my favorite moments of the episode were Peggy-centric:  her pitch to the panty hose guys, her interaction with Joan at the end, and most of all her quiet moment alone with Don:  true, she left there much less mollified than she appeared at first, but something about the way that Don spoke to her was touching, in a "man, is he clueless" sort of way.  Oh, wait, just remembered a non-Peggy favorite moment:  the look of incredulity on Don's face when Megan don't go nuclear on the kids over the spilled milkshake; I think it was that moment of "Wow, she's nothing like my ex" that sealed the deal on his impetuous decision. 
 
*Yeah, I know that's not his character's name on Sons, but he'll always be Lem to me

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