-
Community : season 1 , episode 10
"Environmental Science"
As it wraps up its appearances in November sweeps, Community is really on a roll. That's, by my count, four straight really good episodes, with at least three of them being all-time keepers (especially last week's terrific half ...
-
30 Rock : season 4 , episode 6
"Sun Tea"
Hello, 30 Rockers! My name is Steve, and I’ll be covering the show tonight for The T.V. Club. I realize coming here and getting me rather than Nathan Rabin is like tuning in to Pardon The Interruption for ...
-
Project Runway : season 6 , episode 13
"Finale: Part 2"
Will Carol-Hannah stop puking in time to make it to Bryant Park? Will Irina slaughter a couple of minks at the last minute to up the luxe factor of her upscale loungewear collection? Will Althea develop a design aesthetic besides ...
-
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia : season 5 , episode 10
"The D.E.N.N.I.S. System"
“The D.E.N.N.I.S. System” was a little lighter on laughs than last week but had an amusingly intricate plot (something that’s rare for Sunny), and a fantastic, disgusting denouement (something that’s very common, but ...
-
Fringe : season 2 , episode 8
“August”
Because I work at home, by myself, I spend some portion of each day roaming around the house talking and/or singing in a funny voice. I also spend some portion of each day locked inside my head, in pained ...
-
Supernatural : season 5 , episode 10
"Abandon All Hope"
Hey, remember Ellen and Jo, the only two non-dead recurring non-evil female characters on the show? Remember how they disappeared for a while, but then came back for this season, and it was like, we're gonna be fighting against ... -
The Office : season 6 , episode 11
"Shareholder Meeting"
Hello, Officeianados! Nathan Rabin, well-selling author and man about town, is off leading the lifestyle of a jet-setting ne'er-do-well, so it again falls to me to recap this week's escapades at the possibly insolvent Dunder-Mifflin. This episode ...
-
FlashForward : season 1 , episode 9
"Believe"
Maybe we should only be watching FlashForward in the odd-numbered episodes because after last week's complete snore, "Believe" was quite possibly the show's finest hour yet. It probably doesn't quite deserve an A-, but I believe in ...
-
Parks and Recreation : season 2 , episode 10
"Hunting Trip"
A few weeks back, Leonard Pierce was covering this show for TV Club and made note that the Fred Armisen episode lacked the strength of Parks & Rec's supporting cast. Tonight we saw the other end of the spectrum. Even ...
-
Glee : season 1 , episode 10
"Ballad"
For all of the Glee commentary running rampant on the Internet, there's been surprisingly little analysis of the show as an actual musical. Sure, there's lots of writing about how exciting the show's musical sequences are or ...
-
Top Chef : season 6 , episode 12
"Culinary Olympics"
Looks like Robin got out at the right time.
With the competition thinned to what I think most would (or should) agree are the best final five chefs in the show’s history, Top Chef morphed into another, more exciting ...
-
South Park : season 13 , episode 14
Pee
Ironic racism is a hard line to walk. (Say, isn’t that a Lyle Lovett song?) Doing it right requires a satirical finesse that even our finest comic minds haven’t always pulled off—and when they try, they usually ...
-
Friday Night Lights : season 4 , episode 3
"A Sort Of Homecoming"
If Friday Night Lights has an unofficial theme song it’s the Daniel Johnston-penned “Devil Town.” “Devil Town” opened and closed the first season and served, in a version sung by Tony Lucca, as the soundtrack to the third season ...
-
Modern Family : season 1 , episode 8
"Great Expectations"
There's one thing that "Great Expectations" gets exactly right. Anniversary presents given by spouses to each other suffer from an inevitable asymmetry. In my marriage, Noel plays the role of Phil, thinking up interesting and extravagant gift combinations, always ...
-
America's Next Top Model : season 13 , episode 12
"America's Next Top Model Is..."
Aww. Poor Cornpone Laura. From castratin' bulls to crumple-face crying on the CW because she came in second on America's Next Top Participant At Capetown Fashion Week. And even though she should have known Bloody Eyeball would best her ...
-
So You Think You Can Dance : season 6 , episode 16
Week 4 Results
You know you're in the doldrums of any talent competition when the stress of staying out of the bottom group, while still performing esoteric tasks not of one's own choosing, combine in a mostly workmanlike, lackluster performance show ... -
Sons of Anarchy : season 2 , episode 11
"Service"
I always get nervous when things work out. Something about a resolved conflict, about people with every reason to hate each other finding some common ground--well, it's nifty, don't get me wrong, but it's almost like everybody ...
-
So You Think You Can Dance : season 6 , episode 15
The top 14 perform
Some nights the judges on SYTYCD latch onto an idea and it influences the critiques throughout the entire episode, and tonight’s theme was definitely “growth” (with the baby-picture montages to match). Nearly every couple got a comment—mostly from ...
-
V : season 1 , episode 3
"A Bright New Day"
Halfway through tonight’s episode of V, I was all fired-up and ready to slam it on the AV Club for the third week running when a funny thing happened – the plot started advancing. There were some honest-to-goodness twists! The ...
-
Other Shows : season 1 , episode 1
Chef Academy - "Coming to America"
I'm pretty sure Bravo's new show, Chef Academy, just blends elements of every other show they have on their network until it ends up with something that feels vaguely like a television show. There's one of the ...
-
The Big Bang Theory : season 3 , episode 8
"The Adhesive Duck Deficiency"
"The Adhesive Duck Deficiency" has everything I love about The Big Bang Theory and everything I find enervating about it so close to each other that it almost serves as a perfect object lesson about what makes individual episodes of ...
-
Gossip Girl : season 3 , episode 10
"The Last Days Of Disco Stick"
The other day, the fiancée and I were talking about how Abed Nadir, the possibly Asperger’s-addled mega-geek Danny Pudi plays on Community, is one of our favorite new television characters. And as glad as I was to have ...
-
Heroes : season 4 , episode 10
"Brother's Keeper"
Much like a guy who owns a boat named after himself, Heroes regularly keeps itself at bay. It writes itself into corners, then finds itself in another corner trying to get out of that first corner; before it knows what ...
-
House : season 6 , episode 7
"Teamwork"
It's never a good sign when a show starts forcing conflicts without adequate justification. Drama should come naturally from established character interactions--external forces obviously come into play, but at its core, conflict is all about people bashing into people ...
-
How I Met Your Mother : season 5 , episode 8
"The Playbook"
Last week's episode proved rather divisive, didn't it? For the record, I'm generally against makeup-based comedy. But the tone was so spirited, the action so light on its feet, and the overall effect so genial that I ...
-
Dexter : season 4 , episode 8
"Road Kill"
"Road Kill" is as close a look as Dexter has ever given us at another character through Dexter's eyes. It's an unblinking glimpse into the dark heart of Arthur Mitchell, and while it's still not quite Dexter ...
-
The Simpsons, The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, American Dad : season 21, 1, 8, 5 , episode 5, 6, 6, 6
"The Devil Wears Nada"/"Ladies' Night"/"Quagmire's Baby"/"Shallow Vows"
Fully three of the four animated shows tonight dealt with marital problems between the series' central husband and wife duo. This ended up making Family Guy a weird oasis, even if the episode of that tonight had its own problems ...
-
The Venture Bros. : season 4 , episode 5
"Revenge Society"
I got to interview Jackson Publick last May to promote the release of the third season of Venture Bros. on DVD and Blu-Ray--and yeah, it was pretty freakin' sweet. Nice guy, really smart, and very polite about my mumble-mouthed interrogatives ...
-
Curb Your Enthusiasm : season 7 , episode 9
"The Table Read"
It's taken six episodes, a muffin top life preserver, a few rousing renditions of "Officer Krupke," and one dead black swan, but Larry and Jerry have finally gotten their Seinfeld non-reunion reunion off the ground. There's a set ...
-
Other Shows : season 1
The Prisoner
There's a desert. A man wakes up in it. Another man has a grenade. "Be seeing you." He's scared. Someone orders a wrap, because that's all there is. Ian McKellen is interesting, and well dressed. "There is ...
