As we get started this week, I’d like to offer Verizon’s summary of this episode: “SAMCRO makes an unlikely partnership in order to undermine a powerful club enemy.” I am not inspired with confidence. And sure enough, “Greensleeves” suffers from the same issues as earlier episodes this season, the same issues that have plagued the…
In what’s become something of a tradition for American Horror Story, Halloween marks a two-part episode delving into the supernatural or superstitious (Coven broke with this tradition, but then, Coven also broke with the tradition of being a good television show). This time it’s Edward Mordrake, a deceased carny with two faces, a la Harry Potter’s…
When I was writing about Parenthood last season, I came rather quickly to the realization that it’s a very difficult show to write about weekly. Owing to its realistic, slice-of-life approach to family drama, there are often episodes where very little happens, at least externally. Many of the stories contain such subtle moments, and are…
Boardwalk Empire is exceedingly good at doing finale episodes, and its track record with penultimate episodes is equally great. Season two’s one-two punch of “Under God’s Power She Flourishes” and “To the Lost” is looking primed to go down as the best pair of episodes in the series’ history, and in fact, with its focus…
Scandal’s fourth season may have gotten off to a bumpy start, but this week’s episode is proof positive that delaying certain story developments can have rewards down the line. Fitz and Olivia’s almost-reunion is by far the strongest scene of the episode, and of the season to date, owing almost entirely to the amount of…
After five episodes of slow, careful build-up, Boardwalk Empire explodes into a violent burst of chaos. By the end of “Devil You Know,” we are careening full throttle into an all-out gang war, and all bets are off. This is one of those episodes that will be judged primarily for one or two significant…
As we make our way through the second hour of Freak Show, it becomes very clear (if it wasn’t already) that this season is much more concerned with establishing atmosphere than it necessarily is with accelerating the plot (or even with having one in the first place). The plot beats are pretty basic, but it’s…
There isn’t much to say about “Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em” that hasn’t already been said about the past several episodes this season. No appreciable progress is made in any of the season’s arcs, save that of Juice. The episode concludes on a series of manufactured climaxes, which serve only to delay a conclusion…
This week’s Parenthood gets off to a pretty sluggish start. Everything before the title sequence feels like an unnecessary recap of last week’s episode. That redundancy is especially egregious in the scene where Amber shows Zeek her ultrasound, which is the exact same emotional beat as their conversation at Zeek’s party. Fortunately, the episode quickly…
With “Inside the Bubble,” Scandal is just about back to the breakneck pace that we know and love. What’s less certain is whether all of the very many things transpiring here are as interesting as the show believes them to be. I’m thinking specifically of the revelation that Rowan arranged for the murder of Fitz’s…
