Love is a complete sham in the world of Scandal. Or at least that’s the takeaway of “Put A Ring On It,” which, despite this rather bleak worldview, manages to be a thoroughly enjoyable time, and which even wrests from the wreckage of all these romances something vaguely resembling a happy ending. This is an…
Well, wouldn’t you know it? It’s another great episode of Shameless! The show isn’t necessarily firing on all cylinders even now, but in all honesty, even at the heights of the fourth season there were still missteps here and there (and one pretty big misstep named Matty…). So while not everything in “Drugs Actually” is…
About halfway through this week’s Scandal I came to a realization that surprised me for a couple of reasons. It’s never been clearer than with “It’s Good to Be Kink” that Scandal is having real trouble balancing the fallout of Olivia’s kidnapping with its desire to return to business as usual. And I never really…
There’s really no way to even begin talking about “South Side Rules” without mentioning that knockout of an ending. Looking back on it, it’s a classic bait-and-switch. Ian and Mickey are too happy—seriously, how adorable is their drunken “Love Is a Battlefield” sing along—and that should be the first sign that something is about to…
Even the title of “Carl’s First Sentencing” encapsulates perfectly the waggish sense of irreverence that permeates Shameless. That rebel attitude is on full display in the episode, for better or for worse. But hey—for once, it’s not Frank acting as the dead weight dragging the show down, and for that reason alone I’m pretty taken…
Let me start by saying that while I largely enjoyed this episode, I found it to be sort of all over the place. Take the opening shot, a goofy look at Susan Ross (henceforth Artemis) as she’s prepped to become Vice President. Never mind the outlandish cartoonland politics that are behind this appointment in the…
Gallaghers, right? Our favorite beleaguered South Side family decides their inherited family name is a diagnosis unto itself, or at least it should be, and they’re not wrong. They come to this conclusion while in the jail waiting room; this time they’re waiting on Carl, who has been caught attempting to smuggle, let’s call it…
Here we have what might once upon a time have been marketed as a Very Special Episode of Scandal. And yes, “The Lawn Chair” is primarily concerned with delivering a message, but I don’t think that it falls into the same traps that so many message episodes can. For instance the message does not come…
After a much needed kick in the pants, it’s nice to see Shameless mostly keeping up the momentum. “Tell Me You Fucking Need Me” is perhaps more interesting in concept than it ultimately is in execution, but the concept is so strong, and goes so far in uniting the several disparate elements of the season…
By the end of “No More Blood,” Olivia Pope is back in Washington where she belongs, and everything has changed. Or at least this is the note on which Scandal would like to leave us at the end of this long ordeal. “No More Blood” brings the kidnapping of Olivia Pope to a somewhat natural,…
