Another week, another step closer to total ruin. That’s the mode Sons of Anarchy is in this season, as we continue what’s essentially the fifth act of one long tragedy. We feel the full weight of the show’s dramatic structure and its Shakespearean inspiration this week, as various characters’ decisions have repercussions throughout Charming. The…
“Monsters Among Us” begins with Dot’s arrival at Elsa’s camp, the American Horror Story signature Dutch tilt cleverly hiding Bette’s head from the viewer. We then double back almost immediately, to first the birth of the twins, and then to the hospital where they’re held following Dot’s murder of their caretaker, and Bette’s stabbing of…
How do you know what you are? That’s the question that the asylum’s doctor levels at Gillian Darmody, who claims to recognize the insanity that overtook her, and to have now overcome it. It ironically is the most rational we have seen her in quite some time. But the doctor doesn’t believe her. There must…
This week’s episode is aptly titled, as the show continues to take stock of its characters and where they stand in the wake of the carnage that closed out season three. The episode is very much painting a portrait of broken people, and now we are watching them attempt to piece themselves back together, with…
About two thirds of the way through this week’s Parenthood, Jabbar asks Crosby a deceptively simple question: “How old is Grandpa?” And yet, it’s a question that gets to the heart of this final season. The show is called Parenthood. Confronting the reality that your parents get old is the perfect way to bring everything…
This week’s episode of Sons of Anarchy is, for a while, business as usual. Jax’s murder of the reverend comes back to haunt him, Juice finally agrees it’s time to skip town, and Gemma realizes she’s accidentally framed Nero. But then, with twenty or so minutes to go, things escalate, and fast. When the club…
“How much?” is a question asked regularly by this show. . How much is enough? How much of yourself will you give up? How much that you love will you sacrifice, and to what end? So far, Boardwalk Empire’s answer to this question is two-fold: eventually you will lose everything, and your loss will be…
Scandal’s fourth season premiere is something of re-pilot, and it functions that way for the bulk of its running time. When we first meet Olivia again, she’s living it up on a private island “a hundred miles off the coast of Zanzibar,” with Jake. She’s completely off the grid and pretending to be happy. The…
Reviewing Parenthood is always an interesting prospect for me. Coming up with a score can honestly feel a bit like alchemy. I love this show because it perfectly nails such significant minutiae of family life, like that little shrug Camille gives Julia after Kristina brings Joel on board at the school. You know they are…
Nothing much happens this week on Sons of Anarchy, and yet, I can’t help but feel like this is the best episode of the season so far. As things plummet further into darkness, the show gains a surety of narrative that it hasn’t had in a long time. Now that there is no question as…
