It’s a little odd yet fitting that “Aperitivo” is the fourth episode of the season. It’s odd because, in Italian dining, the aperitivo is the drink that precedes the meal; it’s meant to whet the appetite and to break the ice in social situations. It’s a precursor to not just to the main course, but…
The secondo is the heaviest course of the Italian meal; it may include different sorts of meats or fish. Here’s the most interesting part: according to Wikipedia (I do a lot of hardcore research for these reviews, you know…) either the primo or the secondo may be considered more important, depending on the locality and…
After totally neglecting the cliffhanger ending of its second season, this week Hannibal brings us up to speed—at least somewhat—reacquainting us with Will Graham after what’s revealed to be a six month gap since that hellish night at Hannibal Lecter’s house. But first, “Primavera” takes us all the way back to that night, presenting the final…
What I love best about the titling scheme Bryan Fuller has chosen for Hannibal—this season, each episode is named after an Italian course; the previous seasons were French and Japanese, respectively—is how it at once constitutes gimmickry and structural importance. Not every episode is perfectly aligned with its title, but many come pretty close. “Antipasto”…
“You Can’t Take Command” is the sort of finale that, as you’re watching it, is pretty damn entertaining. But the second it’s over (and, really, during any commercial break or even just a pause in the episode’s action), and you think about any of its components in any sort of detail, the whole thing threatens…
It wasn’t until after I had already watched this week’s episode of Scandal that I learned the episode was titled “A Few Good Women,” a play on, of course, Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men, an altogether superior tale of abuse in the military. Of course, Scandal is dealing with a different type of abuse—rape, here, as…
SCANDAL - "I'm Just a Bill" - With Rowan back in town, the stakes are at an all-time high for the team trying to take down B613. Meanwhile, Olivia gets a call that the mayor's wife has been murdered and is asked to take on the case. Back in the White…
I have very little to say about “I’m Just A Bill,” because frankly, it’s more of the same. More conversations between Rowan and Olivia that, however well acted, are tedious and repetitive. More cases of the week that lead the OPA team to make questionable moral decision, only to turn around and rail about justice…
Show of hands: who here still actually cares about B-613? Even a little, I mean. Because do you remember how sorta fun last Scandal was? Well we’re back to B-613 big time now. Everyone get in on a collective UGH with me. UGH. To fully explain how lame this episode is I’ll have to give…
This has been a sort of formless, shapeless season, and it has in “Love Songs (In the Key of Gallagher)” a finale to match. And yet this episode achieves a sort of formal grace, a specificity of vision, that I wish had been more present in the season as a whole. It’s like a tone…
