25 Tuesday Feb 2014
Posted in Television
Images courtesy of Bay & Thomas Productions and 20th Century Fox.
9×18: “Rally”
So the mid-season/Winter Olympics break is over, and we’re in the home stretch now. Buckle up; it’s about to get crazy.
It’s the morning of Barney and Robin’s wedding, and Barney is lying comatose in front of their hotel room door, unable to move or even wake up. This, friends, is about to be a cautionary tale on the dangers of drinking… sort of.
24 Monday Feb 2014
Posted in Television
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by Thom Yee
Images courtesy of AMC and Fox International Channels
4×11: “Claimed”
So last time I neglected to mention the episode-closing debut of Abraham, Rosita and Eugene. I guess it was because I was so down on “Inmates” overall, and the misery of the episode so outweighed the trio’s arrival that I probably just forgot about them and the breath of fresh air that they were (and are this episode). Regardless of how the newbies turn out over the course of their individual developments (and eventual demises), it’s nice to meet a new group of characters who don’t appear to duplicate any of our existing characters, who don’t care about what our heroes have been through, and who have their own sh*t to deal with.
23 Sunday Feb 2014
Posted in Television
All images courtesy of Nickelodeon.
When I was younger, I used to dream of having superpowers. I would pretend that I could shoot fireballs out of my hands, and I would dream of the day I would get to use my powers on anyone who was mean to me. I think I even got as far as giving myself a superhero name and considering costume design before it finally occurred to me that if my powers hadn’t manifested themselves by the tender age of fifteen (don’t judge), they probably never would.
Maybe that’s why I like watching movies and TV shows about people who can do things like that: X-Men, Heroes, Sky High, Frozen… I like watching people become more than the world around them. I like watching them discover who they are and who they were meant to be. And I really like watching people shoot fireballs out of their hands. So it makes sense that I enjoyed this show as much as I did.
17 Monday Feb 2014
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by Thom Yee
Images courtesy of AMC, Fox International Channels, and Image Comics
4×09: “Inmates”
While this week’s episode is entitled “Inmates”, because that sounds dour and downtrodden and reflective of the state of this world (and ours?), it may as well have been called “Meanwhile” because it’s nothing more than whatever else was happening while the things we actually cared about happened last week.
Whereas last week’s “After” allowed itself to breathe some actual, real life into its characters by not focusing on too many storylines at once, this week’s episode really just serves to catch us up with everyone else. Continue reading
10 Monday Feb 2014
Posted in Television
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by Thom Yee
Images courtesy of AMC and Fox International Channels
4×08: “After”
For me, after a more-than-two-month absence and a status-quo-shattering midseason finale, the thought of more Walking Dead elicits almost equal parts desire and dread. No matter how you feel about the show, no matter which of its strengths and flaws you acknowledge or deny, you have to admit that The Walking Dead is an exhausting show. When Robert Kirkman initially set out to write a continuing story about what happens after the horror movie, as compelling a premise as that may have been, I don’t know if he knew that the results could sometimes be so awful. What this shows us is that, at the end of the day, as much as people’s instincts may lead to jealousy, rage, hatred and murder under the right circumstances (and that may make for some interesting stories), most people aren’t any of those things so much as they are… just fundamentally awful to be around (at least in the long term).
05 Wednesday Feb 2014
Posted in Television
Images courtesy of Bay & Thomas Productions and 20th Century Fox.
9×17: “Sunrise”
So remember how in last week’s review I got all serious and said how, what with the Mother losing the love of her life and doubting if she would ever luck into that again? And how overall the episode was about moving on?
Well, this week’s episode, “Sunrise,” was about letting go. This may be crazy talk, but I’m sensing a theme here.
31 Friday Jan 2014
Posted in Television
by Thom Yee
Community images courtesy of NBCUniversal Television Distribution
5×06: “Analysis of Cork-Based Networking”
Particularly In comparison to the last two episodes, both, in their own ways, gut-wrenching goodbyes to two long-standing cast members, “Analysis of Cork-Based Networking” is a relatively light episode. It’s very plot-based, not particularly dependent on established relationships or longstanding quirks of the series, and it’s probably the closest the show’s felt to season one in a while. Which isn’t a bad thing.
In establishing the “Save Greendale” Committee, Annie splits the remaining members of the Greendale Five (née Seven), along with Professors Duncan, Chang and Hickey, into teams to tackle a variety of pressing issues around the school, among them updating the Greendale Student Census, planning the decorations for the mid-term dance, and rehanging the bulletin board in the cafeteria. So, three tasks, three storylines.
29 Wednesday Jan 2014
Posted in Television
Images courtesy of Bay & Thomas Productions and 20th Century Fox.
9×16: “How Your Mother Met Me”
Sometimes, when writers want us to feel sympathy or camaraderie with their characters, they make said characters go through something negatively life-altering: embarrassment
, failure, loss. We can’t identify with characters when they’re happy all the time, which is why all our favourite stories start out well, get really awful, hit rock bottom, and then go back up to being great again.
If the situation is too unsubstantial or not sufficiently devastating, we won’t feel the emotions we’re supposed to feel. But if the situation is too severe, we can become angry with the writers, thinking, “I see how you’re trying to manipulate me, and it’s not going to work. I’m smarter than you. I’m not going to feel anything.” It’s a constant challenge we writers face: how to write a compelling story about an engaging character that doesn’t make the audience want to smash their own faces in with a hammer.
Say what you will about this week’s How I Met Your Mother, but I think the writers, flawed as they’ve been in the past, succeeded in that goal.
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