Best Episodes of the Season | Jmunney's Blog

Best Episode of the Season: 30 Rock Season 6

June 22, 2012

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Season Analysis: 30 Rock is starting to repeat itself, but it is also making funny out of the fact that it is repeating itself, which is kind of a good thing.

“Leap Day”

“Real life is for March.”

30 Rock was particularly enamored of holidays in Season 6. Certainly, holiday-themed episodes are nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to television, with most shows having Christmas-themed episodes and many often covering Thanksgiving and Halloween as well. But 30 Rock did not premiere until January, so it could not cover those perennial favorites, but it was able to take on the classic Valentine’s Day as well as the not-quite classic St. Patrick’s Day, and it even managed to spruce up one episode with a fake movie trailer for Martin Luther King Day, a Valentine’s Day/New Year’s Eve-esque ensemble rom-com. But the best holiday cheer was saved for a day that only comes around every four years: Leap Day, a magical extra day when you can do things you would not do on any other day. Unless my childhood was just as deprived as Liz Lemon’s, I am pretty sure that February 29 is not actually celebrated by wearing blue and yellow (and poking in the eye people who don’t), dressing up as Leap Day Williams (who spends all other days besides Leap Day in the Marianas Trench), and trading candy for children’s tears. If all those traditions were real, then that fake Jim Carrey movie would probably be a real Jim Carrey movie. But much like Festivus emerging as a real thing thanks to Seinfeld, do not be surprised if come 2016, you suddenly feel the urge to put real life off until March and take a leap into something you otherwise never would have done.

Best Episode of the Season: Suburgatory Season 1

June 22, 2012

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Season Analysis: Suburgatory is much, much weirder than it appears to be at first glance (or perhaps just as weird as it appears to be if all you have seen is one random, particularly weird moment), and it has taken that weirdness all the way to being the best new sitcom of the season.

“Down Time”

All of the main characters of Suburgatory had moments to shine in “Down Time,” and the most fascinating moments came courtesy of none other than Dalia Royce. Dalia is unlike any other seemingly vapid teenage girl in the history of high school movies and TV shows: her superficiality is expressed in truly bizarre fashion, and she is actually occasionally quite clever. And as “Down Time” proved, she is also capable of legitimate emotions, but in Suburgatory’s patently weird fashion, that emotion was introduced in a therapy session (with James Lipton playing the therapist, natch) in which Dalia confronted her nemesis – Yakult … the dog, whom she blamed for her parents’ divorce. But it is not like Suburgatory cannot express its emotions in a more normal way as well, as Cheryl Hines went for broke as Dallas Royce by way of breaking down while mattress shopping over the realization that her marriage truly was over.
“Down Time” also found some happy moments, as Lisa announced that she had finally taken Malik as a lover. Lisa’s moments with her mother upon the news coming out were a precious comic delight from Allie Grant and Ana Gasteyer, with Sheila reminding her daughter that Arthur Fonzarelli is fictional and lamenting the fact that she does not fully understand her since she is a “tweenager.” This storyline also allowed Suburgatory to show off its strangely hip side regarding gender and race, with Lisa reassuring Tessa that the two of them will remain like “Thelma and that other ho” and Sheila commenting Malik by telling him that he is like a list of random black people, for which Malik is happy to play along to, saying that he “gets that a lot” in regards to Montel Jordan.

Best Episode of the Season: Gossip Girl Season 5

June 21, 2012

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Season Analysis: Though it was saddled with some deadweight from its lesser seasons, Season 5 was the best since Season 2: Blair was as good as always (even with occasionally insulting material), Dan was the best he’s ever been, the writers finally figured out how to write for a well-behaved Chuck, Nate was mostly boring but at least he’s a good guy, and Serena … well, I guess I can accept that the writers are not perfect. But then it was all ruined with a season finale in which all the major characters became the worst possible versions of themselves. Dear Gossip Girl writers: the “it was all a dream” reveal is generally an unwelcome cop-out, but you will need to do something like it to make up for the mess you made with that finale.

“Memoirs of an Invisible Dan”

Gossip Girl’s best bet for success is to have as many characters as possible crashing into each other at once. “Memoirs of an Invisible Dan” provided a doozy of a way for this to happen – a way that the entire series had been building to (whether it realized it or not): the announcement of Dan as the previously anonymous author of Inside, the novel chronicling life on the Upper East Side, featuring characters very similar to those on Gossip Girl. This episode actually managed to have it both ways: its style matched that of the way The CW often promotes the show (a series of frothy OMG moments that ought to be followed by a wah-wah sound effect) and the actual style of a typical episode (in which the emotional beats are just as dramatic, but more realistically drawn out, and actually allowing for a chance of resolution). The offense that Dan’s friends took at their portrayals in Inside were unnecessarily harsh, considering that they were fictionalized versions and the book’s narrator, Dylan Hunter, had a consistently and unrelentingly cynical view of his world, even more so than that of Dan Humphrey. But, these characters were based on real aspects of the pasts and personalities of the people in Dan’s life, and thus they had the capacity to really cut to the heart. Ed Westwick showed off some of his finest work in many an episode, as Chuck Bass alternated acknowledged just how right Dan had gotten him, but this acknowledgement also led him to ponder over his life’s severe emptiness.

Best Episode of the Season: How I Met Your Mother Season 7

June 20, 2012

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Season Analysis: Inspired by the death of Marshall’s father, HIMYM plumbed some of its deepest emotional depths in the first half of the season, with Jason Segel doing his best work of the entire series. Then in the second half, there was a little of this, a little of that, and by the end, we still hadn’t quite made it to the wedding that was teased in the season premiere.

“Trilogy Time”

As part of a triennial tradition, Ted, Marshall, and Barney gather to watch the original Star Wars trilogy back-to-back-to-back. I would have been happy if this episode had just been the three of them reacting to the movies, but what this episode actually turned out to be was good, too. It turns out that every year of this tradition, they have imagined what their lives will be like three years into the future. This structure of potential flash-forwards within flashbacks was mostly silly, in that it was already known that these possible futures – at points now in the past – would not come to be. But it was also clever in a way that HIMYM often is, displaying a strong awareness of continuity, as Lily and Marshall’s relationship troubles and Barney and Robin’s secret affair are referenced at the appropriate points. There was also a plethora of blink-and-you-miss-’em gags, particularly the presidents mentioned in the newspaper headlines (Al Gore in ’03, Howard Dean in ’06, Dennis Kucinich in ’09, and George W. Bush for a third term in 2015). Gratifyingly, something resembling a self-appointed endgame was established, with an actual flash-forward to the next trilogy time in 2015 revealing that Ted would be breaking the tradition by bringing a girl along – with that girl being his infant daughter.

Best Episode of the Season: Desperate Housewives Season (Final Season!)

June 20, 2012

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Season Analysis: The final season of Desperate Housewives suffered from a setup in which the four main ladies acted in a way that I just never bought.

“Always in Control”

Though he did reprise the role of Orson for a few episodes, Kyle MacLachlan was not the best Twin Peaks alum on Desperate Housewives’ final season. That honor goes to Miguel Ferrer as Andre Zeller, Susan’s grumpy, exacting art teacher, and it was his presence that served to make some of the best moments of the season as good as they were, and he is a major reason for my pick of “Always in Control” as the best episode of the season. Individual episodes of Desperate typically just continue the storylines from the previous episodes, with the characters from separate storylines maybe – or maybe not – bumping into each other, so it is rare – or at least it has been rare the past few seasons – for an entire episode to distinguish itself. “Always in Control” gets my vote, then, not because the whole episode was great, but because it climaxed in a moment for which I had been holding out hope for several weeks: Susan finding it in herself to actually produce a good painting, prompted by her discovery that the other girls had been hiding the news that Alejandro’s body had been dug up. Andre’s response to her good work was the same as mine: “Finally.”

Best Episode of the Season: American Dad! Season 8

June 19, 2012

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Season Analysis: For a few years now, American Dad! has been the best of Fox’s animated Sunday block (although Bob’s Burgers appears to be taking over in that area); any subpar efforts are at least interesting, and rarely annoying.

“Virtual In-Stanity”

Worried that he has not been a big enough part of Steve’s life, Stan uses the CIA’s avatar program to create a busty blond bombshell avatar (voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar) as a way of bonding with Steve … and then when a love triangle forms, things get a little too close for comfort. So, basically, there was no way “Virtual In-Stanity” was going to win American Dad! any new fans. But for the fans already there, it was Dad’s patented wrong humor done just right. It was also a geeks’ delight, as there were, in addition to Avatar, references to Aliens (Francine fights Stan’s avatar while in a power lift mecha suit) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the real girl who Steve actually wanted to take to the dance was voiced by Alyson Hannigan). And the main plot was not even the most disturbing part of the episode. The B-plot was American Dad! at its most nihilistic, with Roger hunting down a group of frat brothers who did a “drive and dash” after using Roger’s limo service (a service he began upon stealing a limo). It ultimately comes to Roger blowing up a plane that the last surviving bro was on (and also killing a stewardess who had managed to escape on a parachute). Dad! was actually demonstrating some restraint by not making that the A-plot.

Best Episode of the Season: Fringe Season 4

June 19, 2012

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Season Analysis: With all the destruction, crossing over, rebooting, and combination of universes, it is hard to keep track of which characters to identify with and how to do so, which is not to say that Fringe is still not just as fascinating as it has always been.

“Welcome to Westfield”

Fringe, like many sci-fi shows, started off more or less as a freak-of-the-week series, but it became its best when it fully developed its more serial side. Interestingly enough, though, some of the best episodes of Fringe have been the one-off episodes that break from the present serialized plotline, e.g., “Peter,” “Subject 13.” While those episodes did break from the show’s normal setting, they were still quite important in how they related to the whole series – “Peter” revealing how Peter was brought over as a boy from the other side, “Subject 13” revealing what happened to young Olivia during the Cortexiphan trials. Initially, it seemed that “Welcome to Westfield” was going to be a perfectly enjoyable one-off Fringe episode that would work well on its own but would not really relate to the series as a whole. Olivia, Peter, and Walter enter a town from which there is no escape – essentially a living, breathing Twilight Zone episode. The appearances of extra pupils and extra sets of teeth on some of the townspeople were fascinating examples of eldritch horror. And while it was not clear initially how “Welcome to Westfield” would fit into the larger plot of Fringe, the confusion of memories from the townspeople’s versions of themselves from the other universe did fit in nicely thematically in terms of the show’s interest in identity insofar as what makes people who they really are. Ultimately, this episode did prove to be rather important in the overall developments of Season 4, as Westfield prompted this current Olivia to have the memories of Olivia from the first three seasons, and the destruction of Westfield turned out to be a test by David Robert Jones for bringing together and destroying the two universes. A show that originally needed to become serialized to become truly good now needs to mix its serialization up a bit to remain good and keep itself moving forward.

Best Episode of the Season: Parks and Recreation Season 4

June 19, 2012

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Season Analysis: Parks and Rec continued to be one of the best comedies on TV, with strong performances all season particularly from Nick Offerman (who remained basically the same as Ron Swanson, just more awesome) and Aubrey Plaza (with April actually, shockingly, growing and maturing).

“Citizen Knope”

Leslie Knope cares a great deal about everyone she has ever met, because she puts forth a full effort in everything that she does, and thus she just cannot help herself. So of course she always gives everyone the most thoughtful Christmas gifts possible: for Andy – a gold Mouserat record, for Donna – a leather-print robe, for Tom – a watch and a tiny throne (since he couldn’t get tickets to the Watch the Throne tour), for April – a painting of her killing the Black Eyed Peas, and for Ron – a button for closing his office doors. The gift of socks for Jerry was the nicest touch: a classic make fun of Jerry gag, but also sweet, as Jerry is apparently so boring that the gift of socks indicates that Leslie truly understands him. With Leslie suspended from work in the wake of the scandal with her and Ben, she finds herself in the unusual situation of not being able to take care of everything and then some. Therefore, the dual Christmas gifts from the rest of the Parks Department of the gingerbread version of city hall and volunteering as Leslie’s campaign team could not have been sweeter, in that this was the perfect moment for everyone else to step up and show Leslie that they could take care of her just as she has always taken care of them. It was one of the purest examples of friendship inspired by Christmas that I have ever seen on any sitcom.

Best Episode of the Season: The Secret Circle Season 1 (First and Only Season!)

June 19, 2012

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Season Analysis: For the past few years, The Vampire Diaries has made the portrayal of high school life in a small town with a significant supernatural population seem so natural, but then The Secret Circle comes along and makes it seem oh so confused. Still, TSC was occasionally entertaining during its only season, mostly thanks to Australian firecracker Phoebe Tonkin.

“Masked”

The biggest reason I started watching The Secret Circle and just about the only reason I continued to watch despite considering giving up on it several times was Phoebe Tonkin. With her saucy line readings and suggestive facial expressions, she was clearly having the most fun of all the cast members. And a show about witches ought to be fun! There is plenty for high schoolers to be sad about, and that is truer for the kids of TSC than it is for most, but as Faye Chamberlain, Phoebe Tonkin lived by the dual mottos of, “We’re witches, let’s have fun with our powers” and “We’re kids – we’re supposed to have fun!” At no other point in the season was this fun more evident than in “Masked,” the Halloween episode, particularly the scene of Faye and Cassie shopping together, during which Faye spent much of the time walking around basically topless. Faye and Cassie began the series at odds with each other, but they eventually developed into a classic odd couple pairing and the most entertaining pairing of characters that the show had. When Faye brought up the classic maxim that Halloween is the time for being a slutty version of someone else, it was just the right amount of wrong. If some readers think that with this post I have abandoned my journalistic integrity by writing a love letter to Phoebe Tonkin instead of an actual critical analysis, well, then I must repeat that Phoebe Tonkin was by far the main reason I watched The Secret Circle, so any critical analysis I would write about this show was always going to revolve around her.

Best Episode of the Season: The Office Season 8

June 18, 2012

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Season Analysis: Where to begin with the troubles that plague The Office? That reboot idea sure seems necessary, though I don’t know if I can say that I like its chances for success.

“Tallahassee”

One of the biggest problems of season 8 of The Office was its profound lack of focus. It is true that, at its best, The Office has captured the random absurdity amidst the day-to-day drudgery of office life and therefore focus is something that is not really necessary – and perhaps even counterintuitive – for its success. But while The Office has not always had a strong sense of focus plotwise, it has, for most of the series’ run, had a strong sense of the type of show that it wants to be. This past season did not have that sense, at all, so when the Florida storyline provided the show with a focus regarding the plot, it was a good thing that there was at least some focus. “Tallahassee” stood out among the Florida episodes, mostly thanks to some classic Dwight moments the likes of which we do not get to see as frequently as we used to. His struggling through appendicitis and then returning to the presentation after surgery was appropriately suspense-filled comedy: the audience was on edge (a state of mind that can easily prompt laughter), knowing that at any moment, he might collapse or his guts might spill out in front of everyone, and the fact that he was going full-bore despite his condition only made it more amusing. “Tallahassee” also featured the best cold opening of the season (Jim creating a fake murder scene in his hotel room), and that is no backhanded compliment, as the cold opens were a rare consistent bright spot this season.

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