The A.V. Club - TV Club

TV: The Prisoner:"Fall Out"

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0600

"It means what it is." -Number 6 Next year is Lost's finale season. I have high hopes; for all its ups and downs, the show has never completely lost me, and given what happened at the end of last season, I'm really looking forward to how it all plays out in the end. I want answers, I want resolution, I want a satisfying emotional and intellectual experience that will resonate with the series' most effective episodes and prop up the weak spots. But no matter how good it is, that last episode is never going to quite hit ...

TV: FlashForward:"The Gift"

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:12:00 -0600

“The Gift” is the first FlashForward since the pilot where the stuff that makes me nod my head in appreciation outweighs the stuff that makes me want to throw things at the TV. There’s still enough clumsy stuff in it to make me unable to give anything higher than a B to it, but the things that work, particularly a surprisingly ballsy mirror image pair of endings, put me in mind of the show I hoped would exist after the pilot, rather than the one that fumbled along on the way to this episode. Had this episode been the ...

TV: Project Runway:"The Art Of Fashion"

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:10:00 -0600

Well, surprisingly, in the second-to-last episode this season has sort of rallied. It's been revived slightly. Don't get me wrong, this season is still dead. But tonight, the corpse of Project Runway suddenly sat up straight in its coffin for one final scare. There were several points in this episode that felt like the good ole Project Runways of yore: The inspiration-in-a-museum challenge; Tim's wise, dead-on critiques (He seemed the peppiest he's been all season, right? Must be because he's happy to leave LA.); Nina Garcia's sharp eye (she is always, always able to ...

TV: It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia:"Paddy's Pub: Home of the Original Kitten Mittens"

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:25:00 -0600

Season 5 of Sunny has been one of the best years the show’s had in terms of consistency, but this week’s episode had something I think a lot of the s5 episodes have been lacking: a well-thought out plot. Rather than breaking up the gang into two or three different stories that are only vaguely related, everyone was in the same orbit this week, which meant lots of group scenes where nonsense phrases are shouted over each other and disturbing, violent threats are casually made. Classic Sunny. It all revolved around merchandising, with a wonderful cold open showing ...

TV: 30 Rock:"Audition Day"

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:21:00 -0600

One of the nice things about having written for the A.V Club for almost thirteen years is that I have the luxury of only writing about television shows I love (The Office, 30 Rock, Eastbound & Down) or am perversely fascinating by (the deathless warhorse that is Saturday Night Live). So it brings me absolutely no joy to report that the show’s fourth season malaise continues with its fitfully amusing fourth episode. I’d almost rather not write about 30 Rock than write negative reviews. 30 Rock was once a show about a Saturday Night Live-like sketch comedy ...

TV: Supernatural:"Changing Channels"

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:20:00 -0600

Before we get into anything here, I just have to say, this one had me at "Supernatural is filmed before a live studio audience." The show owned my ass from that point on. If it had been just a bunch of white noise and shrieking for the reminder of the hour, I still would've given it a B-. Maybe even a B. Thankfully, such was not the case, but... Damn, that was sweet. I may be wrong, but I'd guess that Pleasantville (a movie that seemed huge when it first came out, but which nobody really mentions anymore ...

TV: Fringe:“Earthling”

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:55:00 -0600

Thanks to the Yankees (yeah, I know, I know), we got an unexpected visit from Fringe tonight… a visit as unexpected as Randy’s foiled anniversary surprise for his wife Natalie. And how about that anniversary surprise, huh? Dude tells his wife he’s heading out of town on business and is going to miss their big day, when he’s actually sitting at home arranging flowers for her. And then, damndest thing, he gets attacked by a Shadow Man and gets turned into a heap of ash in human form. (Just like their wedding night, am I right? Boom ...

TV: The Office:"Double Date"

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:39:00 -0600

First up, embarrassing confession time. I was once dumped on my birthday. Well, it wasn’t exactly on my birthday; it was about ten minutes before my twenty-first birthday. I could see it coming; it really wasn’t a matter of whether the end was coming but rather when. And she decided to blurt, “I, uh, I mean, uh, I think we should probably see other people.” just before the halcyon moment before I reached the legal drinking age. I didn’t particularly mind being dumped (though heaven knows that’s not much fun) but I really wished she’d ...

TV: Community:"Home Economics"

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:37:00 -0600

First of all, my apologies if I get any of the below wrong. I rely heavily on a DVR while writing these things, but this week, I’m hanging out in my hometown where my parents’ DVR only records one show at a time (it really IS the sticks!), and that record slot is for FlashForward. So if I got any of the quotes or anything like that wrong, you can blame the unsophisticated nature of these backwoods-y yokels who will surely teach me about how my life in the city has sapped me of the ability to love and ...

TV: Parks and Recreation:"Ron And Tammy"

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:18:00 -0600

I was already pretty much in the can for Ron "Fucking" Swanson before tonight's episode (excuse me, that's Ron "Freakin'" Swanson), but "Ron And Tammy" definitely proved to me that Nick Offerman is the best guy for the job, hands down. It was chock full of the straight-up shocking lines Swanson's delivered in the past so well, but also showed the man projecting a surprising range of emotions, albeit comical ones. The center of the story is the library, which the parks department hates with undying passion; they're just the worst people in the world, everyone ...

TV: South Park:The F Word

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:43:00 -0600

Hello there. Your usual South Park duo are otherwise occupied tonight, so y’all get a third-stringer to suss out tonight’s confounding episode. And of course it’s an episode dealing exclusively with a word that I don’t really want turning up attributed to my name in a Google search, but in the interest of serious journalism, I will set my scruples aside. Besides, as tonight’s episode tells us—“tells” meaning “bashes us over the head with”—a fag by any other name is still a fag, be it a gay fag, a poor fag, an old ...

TV: Friday Night Lights:"After The Fall"

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:38:00 -0600

“You’ve lost your inner pirate,” cameoing Texas Tech coach Mike Leach tells Coach Taylor at a random encounter at a gas station in the second episode of the fourth season. Being a casual, at best, football fan, I had no idea who Leach was. I thought this was just some random loon giving Coach advice, albeit a random loon who might be on to something. Last week saw Coach throwing in the towel after barely making it through a brutal first half of his debut appearance as the coach of the East Dillon Lions. I honestly had no idea ...

TV: Modern Family:"En Garde"

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:03:00 -0600

These last couple of episodes have been a mixed bag. We're seeing, I suspect, an excellent sitcom experiencing the growing pains of a long American season. Tonight there were at least two moments that rank among the best the show has produced. Yet the overall storyline doesn't feel like it has the energy or inventiveness we saw at the start of the season. That's probably because the rest of the writing staff is getting involved, and they haven't yet gotten the rhythms or emotional beats as intuitively as Levitan and Lloyd, the creators. Turns out Manny ...

TV: America's Next Top Model:"Dive Deeper"

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:00:00 -0600

Tonight on Le Petit Top Model, the miniscule lil' modelettes are really starting to show their true tiny personalities. Bloody Eyeball has a stoner voice, but she's pretty sharp, and by "sharp" I mean "she can identify that Erin is a brat." Erin, aka Albino Mena Suvari, is a brat who may or may not be a cupcake Nazi. Sundai is an over-enunciating former foster kid who is shrewdly saving her sob story for when she makes top four (Hmm. Interesting strategy for sticking around, Sundai. After all, we all know how Tyra loves to capture the sob stories ...

TV: Sons of Anarchy:“Fa Guan”

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:54:00 -0600

Zack is graciously allowing me to fill in for him this week on Sons duty because I’ve been itching for the chance to write about the phenomenal second season of what’s become one of my favorite shows. I liked Season One of Sons Of Anarchy fairly well, but if I’m being honest, I found it a little broody and self-serious at times, especially in the early episodes, and again at season’s end. My favorite S1 SoAs were the one that either dealt with the minutiae of biker club life or amped up the pulpier plots ...

TV: So You Think You Can Dance:The top 18 perform; two are eliminated

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:26:00 -0600

Thanks to the scrappy Phillies, we have another two-hour performance show culminating in judges' cuts. And I'm grateful, because better the judges having to make these decisions than America. Even last week I thought there was only one clear loser, poor one-and-out Brandon. Unless somebody drops somebody, I'm just not sure how to identify who's going home. On any given Tuesday, though, anyone might shine -- and anyone might suck. So let's break it down couple by couple and see if anybody sinks to the bottom and makes the judges' job easier. Noelle and Russell: Noelle is ...

TV: 30 For 30:"Without Bias"

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:40:00 -0600

The second episode of ESPN's documentary series in a row to be crafted from previously existing materal, "Without Bias" -- about the short career and tragic demise of college sensation/would-be Boston Celtics savior Len Bias -- is a reworking by director Kirk Fraser of his own award-winning Len Bias: The Legend You Know, The Story You Didn't. I haven't seen the film, and it's still scheduled for a limited release next summer, so it's easy to suspect, especially after this episode, that Fraser kept some good stuff in his pocket. In the footage we see early ...

TV: V:"Pilot"

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0600

Alone among this year’s new sci-fi (or “genre,” or whatever you want to call them) shows, V’s chief strength is its rock-solid premise. Aliens arrive in big ships, they seem nice…but ARE they? (Hint: no.) The alien arrival trope is so well-worn, one talking head on TV even mentions how the whole thing seems like a rip-off of Independence Day, or “any number of alien invasion predecessors.” So I guess it’s not surprising that almost everything here feels a little rote and by-the-numbers. V has the additional burden of being a remake of a show that ...

TV: Heroes:"Once Upon a Time in Texas"

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:45:00 -0600

More than anything, Heroes wishes it was 2006 again. It was the cool new show on TV, it hadn’t gone to its well of narrative tricks so often that they all became boring, and people were legitimately enthralled by its myriad plot twists. While I’ve always been fairly skeptical of Heroes’ virtues, even I’m a little saddened by just how bad the show has gotten, but just how little anyone involved seemed to understand how to capitalize on the show’s moment and ran virtually all goodwill the show had into the ground. For God’s sake ...

TV: Gossip Girl:"The Grandfather: Part II"

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:18:00 -0600

Three weeks after its last big celebrity cameo and two weeks after a barely scandalous same-sex kiss, the latest episode of Gossip Girl dove into November sweeps by engaging in some meta-plotting and centering its A-story around political intrigue involving William "Trip" Van Der Bilt III's run for congress. Hey, wha' happened? Wha' happened is Gossip Girl spent the first episode of a sweeps month—one of those magical, quarterly periods where the networks traditionally (and transparently) woo additional Nielsen households with ramped-up programming, a period that has previously brought us Blair Waldorf the burlesque dancer and Wallace Shawn ...