This Week on the Boob Tube: Shows With No Eliminations

MOOD | a million bucks
CRAVING FOR | more Taboo games in the office
RANDOM | tomorrow feels like a saturday




Hello folks! I'm baaaack! Told you it wouldn't take too long before I succumb to the temptations tortures of television. The Powers That Be just won't let me escape, and I'm helpless under their daunting force of authority. Helpless... like Blair Waldorf in NYU. Feeble... like a post-wiped Echo. Lost... like Sonja Stone after a six-month hiatus from the modeling world. Lame... like all these attempts to segue.

Let's not waste any more time, shall we? Class is now in session!

WARNING | If you're not watching the latest episodes of these shows, you will be spoiler-ed. However, the reviews below may be late on a few shows, so yay for the late downloaders!

Season 1, Episode 1

"Pilot"

{A-}

Joel McHale is love. His witty jabs at celebrities in The Soup has always been a reliable source of chuckles, and in Community, I expected nothing less. And shock of shocks: McHale delivered. I'm glad that the show catered to his type of humor, transforming what may have been a disastrous cast (the Indian stereotype, the token black guy, and freaking Chevy Chase?!) into a perfect cesspool for fast-paced humor. My boy McHale held this bunch of misfits together quite well.

Season 2, Episode 1

"Vows"

{B}

Woo! One of my favorite shows last season is back! I've had high expectations of the season premiere, primarily because the last Dollhouse episode I watched-- Epitaph One-- was beyond amazing. That episode solidified the direction the series was going, and provided enough answers and endings for the characters while leaving new and exciting questions at the same time. In comparison to that, Vows came up short. It's good that they didn't focus on the Assignment of the Week, and even better that they picked up basically from where they left off with Omega, but the episode just wasn't that exciting. (Also: more scenes with Sierra and Victor, please!)

Season 1, Episode 4

"Preggers"

{A+}

Single Ladies. For one whole episode. OMG. Kurt kicking ass, admitting his gayness to his dad, and feeling more loved than ever. OMG. Finn able to convey raw and real emotion. Tears, bros, tears. And Quinn digging deep within her soul to portray a vulnerable teenager caught between a rock and a hard place. Phenomenal. Probably the best episode since the pilot, and I have a feeling it's just going to get better.

Season 3, Episode 2

"The Freshman"

{A-}

It's all about the ladies. I don't know what's worse-- Serena's unfounded brattiness, Blair's constant need to be Queen Bee, Vanessa's lack of hair care sense, or Georgina's existence. In an episode where the women are acting like childish idiots, it's good to see that maturity can still be found... in Chuck Bass. Yes, Chuck Bass, king of everything disastrous and devilish, reprimands Serena for acting up and provides practical advice to Blair all in the span of one episode. The world has turned.

Sadly, Nate wasn't in the episode. OH. SO SORRY. He was there?

Snip that Bree nonsense off the bud, writers.

Season 5, Episode 1

"Definitions"

{A}

My roommate knows that every time we watch this show, I would turn to him and say: "I freaking love this show." That love did not waver a single bit with HIMYM's 5th season premiere, Definitions. If any, it propelled my fandom to a whole different level: I have ceased to care how Ted Mosby would meet his future wife. I was all for it during the first few seasons, driven by a burning curiosity to discover how they could extend such a shortsighted plot (and adopt it as the show's title, no less!), but now that I've discovered how they could do it (yellow umbrellas and almost-weddings and being in the wrong classroom at the right time) and more important, that they could do it, it's no longer at the top of my appreciation list. Everything else-- from Barney's awesomeness to Marshall's awkwardness to Lily's relentlessness to Robin's Canadian-ness to Ted's normal...cy-- just all came together for me. This is a good cast with an engaging script and a cohesive story to tell, and Definitions is the right launching pad for the season to come.

Season 1, Episode 2

"The Beautiful Aftermath"

{C}

I'm all for shows about beautiful and rich people (see Gossip Girl), but this show lacks luster and glamor, the very things it should be overflowing with. Name-dropping signature labels every ten seconds or so does not a fabulous show make. And the acting? Terrible. I'm willing to give Ben Hollingsworth a pass ("Chris Andrews"), but Mischa Barton ("Sonja Stone")? I'm not as forgiving. Wasn't she in that "critically-acclaimed" California-based show epochs back? Did she always act in this manner, like she can't move her facial muscles? If she's going to be the focus of this show, and she's required to act, she better shape up fast.