Perhaps unavoidably, “Red Rose” is a step down from the preceding episode. Not only is there still one more episode through which to stretch the series’ denouement, but it’s also just plain impossible to maintain the emotional highs that we’ve just reached for what would amount to nearly three hours of television. Season arcs come…
Parenthood really could have gone out for the year on a better note. “Lean In” is a middling episode at best, with stories that are repetitive, grating, and frustrating. As much as I love Sarah and Hank, it’s a rough week indeed when their portion of the show is the sole highlight of the episode.…
As “Where the Sun Don’t Shine” begins, Rowan has gone off the grid following Olivia and company’s failed attempt on his life. Our intrepid heroes spare no effort in their attempts to find him; as Olivia so marvelously puts it, “As for my father, hunt him, find him and kill him.” But then Olivia is…
Lo, my friends: John Landgraf giveth, and John Landgraf taketh away. In the very same week where Sons of Anarchy reinvigorates a flagging season with a stunning, emotional episode, American Horror Story comes completely off the rails, on the heels of a pretty good outing. After all my ballyhooing about how “Bullseye” brought focus…
Let’s get this out of the way up front: this should be the antepenultimate episode of a seven or eight episode season, tops. For all the plot that this season has had to this point, every new twist and knot in Jax’s elaborate vengeance scheme, there really has not been enough story to justify the…
The worst thing about the current structure of television dramas, which emphasize winter finales that require series plots to simultaneously escalate to a climax, while also forestalling any real progress until that climax happens. Such is “The Last Supper”, which makes much ado about the Winslow conspiracy, further complicates it by adding both Elizabeth North…
“Aaron Brownstein Must Be Stopped” is just a great episode title, and happily, it accompanies a pretty great episode. Any time spent on Max is generally time worth spent, and this week is no exception. But the episode also achieves the remarkable feat of taking Crosby’s story, which has oscillated of late between boring and incessantly petulant,…
It’s amazing what one good episode can do. Freak Show is as insane as ever, but “Bullseye” continues on from “Pink Cupcakes” and gives most, if not all, of its insanity some context. Finally the characters begin to feel like they inhabit the same space, and the show overall is more of a piece with…
Well, it’s about time. In the last moments of “Faith and Despondency” the truth about Tara’s murder is finally revealed. Of course this is done in a way that isn’t totally incontrovertible; I can already envision the seventy-minute fetch quest to find Gemma that will culminate in a dramatic cliffhanger. The thing about this episode…
By this point in Parenthood’s final season, your enjoyment of any given episode depends in large part on which characters you favor, and whether they appear in said episode. For instance, I enjoyed “These Are The Times We Live In” much more than last week’s episode, because I happen to like Julia and Drew best,…
