Heroes - "One of Us, One of Them"

I will say it right now: Heroes is back. This was a season one caliber episode, and for the first time since the end of that season, I finished an episode of Heroes with the frustration that it wouldn't be on for another week. The plot for this show is so scattered, that I think I'm going to do what I did last week and just break it down, thread by thread.

First of all, we had the biggest thread, Bennett and Sylar staring in their own buddy cop film. Ok, so it wasn't exactly Lethal Weapon, but it was pretty solid. Mama Patrelli decided to give her recently revealed son a chance by teaming him up with the adoptive parent of her granddaughter, just to make it a family affair. It undoubtedly seemed like Sylar would just run rampant, stealing powers, or that Bennett would try to kill him before he could, but surprisingly, they worked together. I couldn't help but feel excited that the two of them were working together. Ever since the Season 1 episode when Sylar went to his apparently adopted mothers apartment, seeking redemption for his crimes, I've always seen Sylar as a good guy gone bad rather than a bad guy through and through, so it was great to see that he can also be someone we root for.

The first mission for Bennett and Sylar was to get back the prisoners from Level 5 that were holding up a bank with Peter in the body of Weevil. Sylar, in now the second time this season I've laughed at something he's said, took control of the crime scene and gave Bennett the credibility and protection to go into the bank. This proved important, because just as Peter was saving Bennett from the rest of the Merry Men, Future Peter stopped time and pulled him out of there. (Sidenote: Is it just me, or is it really weird that everyone addresses Future Peter as a seperate entity from Present Peter? I mean, they're the same person) This allowed Sylar to jump in and save the day. This seemed like a nice moment until Sylar decided to help himself to Weevil's brain, sending him once again to his cell in Level 5.

While Noah was out fighting villains, all was far from quiet at the Bennett house. Claire wanted to ditch school to fight bad guys (golly I miss high school!) and Meredith was clashing with Sandra over who was really the best woman to protect the unkillable girl. Meredith, in a performance that would surely win mother of the year, took Claire to an abandoned freight container to teach her how to fight, but only really suffocated her and got Claire to reveal the shocking admission that she just wanted revenge on Sylar. This caused Claire in the end to leave home with a Primatech paper box, presumably to become Jaded Black Haired Claire of the Future.

Hiro and Ando meanwhile did what they do and provided some nice comic relief, which, for the first time since Season 1, was really fun to watch. Traveling to Germany to stop Daphne from stealing the other part of the formula, they really did nothing productive but crack jokes ("What kind of over-confident nemesis are you?"), but like I said, they were fun this episode. I think the two of them and Daphne are great characters for the show because they break from the super-seriousness of the rest of the cast. We also got to see the Haitian again, as he was delivering part of the formula, a task messed up by Hiro and Ando. They got thrown in Level 5, where they'll undoubtedly have a humorous confrontation with Mamma Patrelli next week.

Last, we have Tracy, who went to New Orleans to find out who Nikki was. Turns out Nikki is dead and Micah can briefly put aside his grief to help the ghost of his mother find out more information. Unfortunately, all we got this week was the revelation that Nikki and Tracy were born on the same day with the help of a Dr. Zimmerman, who revealed that there's more of them out there. Parkman was similarly short-changed on the plot, as all we learned was that the African guy can paint the future and the future has changed, which we already have been bludgeoned to death with. At the end, Parkman went all Issac Mendez on us, so that should be interesting for next week.

So while I poked fun at a lot of elements of the episode, and there were a lot of issues with it, this episode was the most fun and entertaining an episode of Heroes has been since we still thought saving the cheerleader would save the world. Heroes needs another episode like this next week for me to truly believe in its second coming, but for now, I'll take it.

A-

P.S. Notice this was a good episode and there was no Maya or Mohinder? Also, where is Monica? She had such a cool power.

Dexter - "Our Father"

Although its not one my top tier shows, I do enjoy Dexter and find it pretty fascinating. Last season, especially, had a really great idea (making season's "big bad" Dexter was a pretty great twist) although like many people I felt let down by the finale, which excused Dexter from having to make a big choice in a rather unsatisfying way. Nonetheless, I was quite looking forward to this show, if only because I'm hungry some kind of season-long mystery show and Heroes just isn't doing it for me this year. However, while "Our Father" was a solid episode, I felt let down by a couple of things.

This season started with Dexter having gotten his groove back. After last season's struggles he finds himself resuming his role as Miami's vigilante serial killer, while finally having everything together with Rita. Unfortunately, things take a turn south when Dexter goes to kill his new mark and accidentally winds up stabbing a different man. Things get even more complicated when that man turns out to be the squeaky clean brother of Miami's DA, Jimmy Smits. Now that Dexter has killed an innocent man, what does that mean for his moral code? Its an interesting question that episode rightly puts at the center. It was somewhat disappointing, and not at all surprising, that the victim didn't turn out to be as clean as everyone thought. It seems like whenever this show starts to flirt with truly pushing the envelope, it backs off at the last second. I think if Dexter's going to continue to develop and grow, it would be interesting to see him have to make some truly dark choices (this is after all a show about a serial killer).

Meanwhile, the stories in the department seem to be off to a good start. I really enjoy Deb, Angel, and Masuka, and it was good to see all of them back and continuing to grow. Meanwhile, Doakes was always a little one note, so I don't really find myself missing him. As for the new guy, I'm reserving judgment until I see more. I think the whole IA angle is something that a lot of police shows don't really explore and it could be interesting in the right hands. Of course, it could also turn out to be really tedious.

But perhaps the most interesting development came at the very end, with the revelation that Rita is pregnant. The idea of Dexter dealing with really-for-real fatherhood is simultaneously frightening and interesting, and I think that could be a cool place to take him.

So, what were my big problems with this episode? Well, first of all, it seems to have forgotten the end of last season, where Dexter cast aside Harry and his code. It was a bold move, but one that seems to have completely disappeared from this season. Did they just forget? Am I remembering wrong? The other problem is more serious and that is that I'm not sure where this season is going. After the first episodes of seasons 1 and 2 we knew who the big threats were (be it the Ice Truck Killer or Dexter himself). This time I'm not sure if the murder we saw is big enough to hang a season on. And Freebo seems more like a killer from a two-part episode of CSI than a season-long villain. Is there going to be a serialized mystery? Or is the show switching to a more procedural format?

All in all, however, those are more big picture issues that may resolve themselves in the next couple of episodes. For now, this season is off to a promising start. Even if I'm not as immediately grabbed as I was by past season premieres, I'm definitely still interested to see more.

B

Catching Up: Fringe - "The Ghost Network"/Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia - "America's Next Top Paddy's Billboard Model"/"Mac's Banging the Waitress"

As the rather epic title of this post indicates, I'm a little behind, for which I apologize profusely. After this week I'll be dripping with free time and able to resume normal posting activities, but until then please just bear with me. Anyway, for the sake of catching up, I've combined these two posts into one, which kind of works out for me since none of these episodes was especially interesting.

Starting with Fringe, it seems that three weeks in the show has established its formula and is intent in sticking to it. This week, that formula involves gas that solidifies when in contact with the air (leading to the Jurassic Park-mosquito effect) and a person who thinks he's having premonitions of future events. In actuality, his brain is intercepting messages being sent on the ghost network by...somebody.

Ultimately, my two big problems with Fringe are still there. First, I think in trying not to make Lost, the show has overcorrected too far in the other direction. The lack of any sort of big picture is frustrating. Four hours into Lost, we had heard the monster, seen a polar bear, and discovered that the island heals people. Heck, four hours into Alias we knew SD-6 was evil, the CIA was good, and Milo Rambaldi was a crazy inventor. But four hours into Fringe, all we know is that something called The Pattern is happening and that Massive Dynamics is not to be trusted.

Second, and perhaps more important, is the issue of Olivia. Frankly, she is just not interesting and, so far, has contributed very little to the show. Even Peter has managed to get interesting, thanks to the snark and mysterious past, but Olivia remains mopey and bland. Yet the show essentially rests on the shoulders of a character that I couldn't care less about. The show could survive its formuliac nature and lack of any big picture if it had compelling enough characters, but as of right now, it does not.

Meanwhile, Sunny unleashed two more episodes on us last Thursday, one hilarious and one lame. "America's Next Top Paddy's Billboard Model" featured some truly funny moments, including the return of Green Man. In fact, I loved just about everything about the Sweet Dee/Charlie plotline. Meanwhile in the A-story, Frank and Mac searched for models for the bar's new billboard, in Mac's case it was a search that turned into a Bachelor-esque contest, complete with clover-shaped coasters to hand out to the winners. However, I thought Frank's antics were a little funnier, especially when he threw bleach at Dennis ("anything can happen on the runway") and his takedown of Dennis' photoshoot ("I'm no longer turned on by mules)

The second episode, "Mac's Banging the Waitress" was a rare miss, likely due to the fact that Dee and Frank were completely absent. The resulting episode had some funny ideas (both the "best friend" competition and the idea of Mac banging the Waitress were concepts that seemed solid) but no real laughs. Ultimately, it was an episode that sounded better in concept than in execution.

However, I'd say neither of them were real classics, and I think that so far this season has yet to match the inspired levels of hilarity and outright evilness that the previous seasons of the show have reached. Hopefully that will change with this week's episode (which looks all kinds of promising).

Fringe: B- Sunny - "Next Top Model": B+ Sunny - "Mac's Banging the Waitress": C-

How I Met Your Mother - "The Best Burger in New York"

After last week's promising season premiere, the second episode of How I Met Your Mother's fourth season has kept up the pace without missing a beat. The writers proved once again that they are far from slowing down and still have plenty of material to work with.

In this week's episode, the story focuses on Marshall and his search for a new job. Things aren't going well, surprise surprise, and the only thing that can cheer him up is another taste of the Best Burger in New York. The only problem is, he can't remember where the place is. Hilarity ensues.

I was quite relieved to see the writers giving attention to Marshall this week. He and Lily received almost no attention in the premiere, leading me to worry that the writers were forgetting about them, or considered the couple unnecessary to the new plot lines. But tonight showed that Marshmallow and Lilypad haven't been forgotten, nor will they be in the future.

Fans were also treated to quite possibly the best cameo the series has seen. All I can say is, you don't want to fuck with Regis Philbin.

I should note that Stella was absent from tonights episode, although her absence was hardly noticeable, and certainly not detrimental. I, personally, can't make up my mind as to how I feel about this. On the one hand, her character finally gained some depth and became more likable in last weeks episode. On the other, though, I still don't know enough about her to care whether or not she's missing...time will tell, I suppose.

A

Entourage - "Fire Sale"

Last night's episode of Entourage, "Fire Sale," proved that the show doesn't have to be flashy cars and gorgeous women all the time, and perhaps showed that the show could actually work deeper than that. In the previous three seasons, the adventures of Vince and the Gang have always been accompanied by a subplot involving the extravagances of being a movie star. Last night, however, was about the Hollywood game, a plot that has always come secondary to the Hollywood lifestyle.

We picked off right where we left off last week with Eric on the verge of a deal with Amanda for his firefighter script, Vince trying to do all he can to make money and get back in the game, and Drama still being Drama. Vince and Eric were more closely tied together in this episode, as I expected. Everything seemed to be sailing smoothly for Eric until Ari swept in and out of nowhere decided he liked the script and wanted Vince to do it. This pissed off Amanda and apparently Ed Norton, but it seemed like Eric could sell his first script and Vince could get back on the path to redemption. But things were not so simple, as Ed Norton decided to go in on the bidding war, but possibly at the cost of Vince's part. Next week should be interesting as they will undoubtedly figure out how to resolve this problem, probably at the expense of someone's career.

The Drama story this week seemed to have taken a page out of The Office's playbook, making the viewer as uncomfortable as possible as he painstakingly professed his love to his ex on The View. It seems like his fellow cast members were total jerks and solely there to create trouble for Drama, who I still can't tell if they tolerate or not. It's good to see Shauna back in a somewhat frequent role. Her vulgar and brash approach to everything big and small has always cracked me up. Turtle seems more useless than ever this season, barely doing anything other than make wise cracks from the background. Hopefully, they'll bring him out a little more. Other than that though, this was the first completely solid episode of the season. Hopefully more will follow.

A

The Office - "Weight Loss"

Now somewhat of a phenomenon in its fifth season, The Office has become the show to watch if you're under the age of 35 and hate sad doctors. Tonight's season premiere was one that was certainly aimed at pleasing the numerous fans of the show, not necessarily one to draw new people in. Old jokes were brought back, such as Michael's constant desire to emulate Ryan, Angela's love of "Little Drummer Boy," and Holly's perception that Kevin is mentally disabled. Though all of these jokes were thrown in to appease fans, they also were there as a punch-line for jokes set up ages ago, a craft that Arrested Development practically invented.

Let's start by talking about what was going on in the office, the weight loss competition. This seems like a really stupid idea, but the writers really used it and made it not only believable, but hilarious. The Office has the best ensemble cast on TV (no offense 30 Rock, yes offense Heroes), and they shined tonight. It was great to see Ryan back and not a total tool, and it was pretty nice to see Oscar again. Kelly was by far my favorite, with her ridiculous weight loss ploys and her goofy confessionals when she's totally out of it. My two favorite workers, Stanley and Creed were oddly disappointing tonight. They had their moments, but for an hour long episode, they've been funnier. Toby's brief appearance at the end was pretty great, but I surprisingly didn't miss him.

All this aside, let's look at what was going on. First of all, we had Michael and his myriad of relationship issues. Jan popped up for a second, just to show that Michael is still hopelessly falling after her, despite Holly's obvious interest in him. It was definitely cringe inducing when Michael tore up the Counting Crows tickets that Holly was obviously hoping to use with him. His misguided sweetness has always made him more human, but usually at the expense of an awkward moment. The thing about tonight though was that this was the first time he did so selflessly, not in a selfish manner, such as when he proposed to Carol.

Dwight and Angela and Andy sure created a nice bit of romantic tension, and honestly, I'm not sure what to make of all of it. Angela, fed up with Andy's obsession over the wedding she doesn't seem to want, keeps paging Dwight for a booty call in the warehouse, only to finally come around to Andy when he shows his sweet side. When he insists on having his Cornell acapella group at the wedding though, she goes right back to Dwight. This seemed to be more of a story of Angela and Andy as opposed to Dwight, who did little more but wander in and out of the back room of the warehouse. Dwight's attachment to Angela and his heartbreak at losing her last season really made me care about his character more than when he was just the office weirdo, so I hope that as Angela and Andy get closer to their wedding, he becomes more of a factor again.

That leaves us with the big couple, Jim and Pam. When we last saw them, Jim had had his thunder stolen by Andy's proposal and Pam was disappointed that he didn't propose to her. Trouble seemed afoot in the relationship we'd all been waiting for, and it didn't seem to much better throughout most of the episode as Pam was in New York and Jim was in Scranton. Jim laid off the goofy likeable guy act for an episode to be upset about Pam's absence while Pam was making friends and getting used to college life (Oh college kids and their soy milk!). The moment we wanted last season finally changed all of this as Jim proposed to her at a rainy gas station, causing all the women in American not watching the sad doctors to squeal and sigh in delight. I liked how the American version broke from the British by getting the Pam and Jim characters together, and I'll be very intrigued to see what they do now that the will-they-won't-they couple is engaged. Could this be the beginning of the end?

A pretty decent start for the Office. They've been consistently funny and different each season, so I expect a lot from this one. If Amy Ryan stays as Holly and the Jim and Pam plot doesn't weigh things down, The Office could really take fans on a ride this season.

A-

Gossip Girl - "The Ex Files"

Previously on Gossip Girl, Nate was being boring with both a middle aged married woman and Vanessa, who managed to cram an entire season of crying into one episode. Blair was dating the woman's stepson, a British lord with a hilariously fake accent. Meanwhile, Serena and Dan accidentally got the script from last season's finale, but went ahead and acted it out anyway. Oh, and Rufus is dating. Which is a storyline. I guess.

I was actually considering pulling the plug on these recaps since 3 episodes in, this show was sucking. And not in that special, awesome way that it usually sucks. But I decided I'd give it another week and thank God I did, because this week was all kinds of great.

But bad news first, in order to get rid of boring cougar and her boring stepson we had to deal with a plot that the show certainly thought was OMG-worthy, the two of them are sleeping together! Honestly, was anyone surprised by this? Other than Vanessa, who got to cry some more, and Blair, who told Vanessa she'd take care of it, then ceased contact with her and was shocked when Vanessa saw her with boring stepson and assumed the worst. Of course, Vanessa is also not in the clear here, since, as much as I hate to say it, Nate was right and she should have told him. But that's about all the interest I can muster in this plotline, the result seeming to be that Nate and Vanessa are done (again), and Blair was too distracted to keep up with everyone else's schenanigans.

Which is too bad, because everything about this episode was so great. The Swirling Vortex took center stage and, although that normally means trouble, this week we finally got to see the plot move forward into post breakup territory. The trouble started when Dan appeared to be winning the breakup by meeting and arranging a date with Amanda, who I had a serious crush on for about a half hour. Seriously, she looks just like Jenny Lewis, has great taste in books, is both rich and unpretentious, and looks JUST like Jenny Lewis. Of course, it was all too good to be true, but I'm getting ahead of myself, for much of the show's first half dealt with Blair's failed attempts to marginalize Amanda. That plan backfired hardcore when Dan and Amanda showed up at Club That We Saw Like Twice Last Season (I assume, it was so generic looking it could have been everywhere and the show is somewhat surprisingly missing any sort of hangout or central gathering place). This gave us the triumphant return of Gossip-Girl-as-plot-device, one of my favorite elements of the show, and ultimately led to Serena deciding for once acting like an adult and attempt to bury the hatchet.

Unfortunately, she also demanded a group date, something that was clearly only ever ending in tears. For a second, after the bland girls burned Amanda's hair I was worried we'd get self-righteous Serena. But instead Josh Schwartz smiled upon us and gave us the greatest development of all -> MEAN GIRL SERENA. We've heard forever about how bad Serena used to be, but getting the chance to actually see her in action should be the shot of adreneline this show needed. And now we've opened up all kinds of plot opportunities: for Blair, who's back to being number 2, for Chuck, who now has someone new to plot with, and for the Humphreys, who have suddenly become public enemies 1 and 2. The ending revelation, that Chuck was paying Amanda to get close to Dan, was just the delicious icing on this week's cake of awesome bitchiness. Honestly, Amanda was too good to be true and my one complaint was how unrealistically she had been behaving for someone who didn't know Dan 24 hours ago. It was nice to see someone's stupid and unrealistic behavior explained for once.

In subplot world, Jenny was treated obnoxiously and ended up skipping school to go to Eleanor's again. I feel bad for Jenny, but I'd rather see her dealing with the mean girls than trapped in a made for TV version of The Devil Wears Prada. She was always the most interesting when she wasn't running away, and I sort of thought they were ultimately setting her up as some kind of vigilante, using mean girl tactics for good. I guess not. Oh, and Rufus is dating. Still. But he can't date Lilly. Whatever.

I have short-changed a number of great things about this episode (Blair actually had files for Draft Day, and literally conducted interviews! And Chuck used the files to find people to date!), because there was just so much to like. If I'm going to be obnoxious about everything this show does wrong (and believe me, I will) then I've got to give it credit for what it gets right. When the writers manage to place us inside the workings of the TMZ lifestyle these kids lead, it makes for truly compelling television. And now that the season seems to have finally found a compelling and new direction, there could be no stopping it.

A-

How I Met Your Mother - "Do I Know You?"

How I Met Your Mother is back, and better than ever.

The season finale left us with two big plot points to mull over: Barney's new found love for Robin and Ted's proposal to Stella. Combined, they held the potential to completely change the dynamic of the show. What I wasn't sure of was whether it would be for better or for worse? Would having all the characters in committed relationships, especially the eternal bachelor Barney, take out all fun, "dating life" appeal of the show, or would it provide new and interesting plot lines for a show that seemed to be heading towards the inevitable sit-com predictability?

Well tonight we got our answer, and I could not have been happier. Not only has the writing gotten that much better (the first 5 minutes had me in a state of non-stop laughter), but the writers also made sure that the new plot lines were fresh, entertaining, and full of potential.

The new side of Barney is both highly entertaining and somehow, believable. We've seen the "Confident Player Turned Weak-Kneed By Love" before, but NPH's performance was flawless, making it feel like the first time I'd seen that gag.

We also got to see a new side of Stella. I'd enjoyed her in previous episodes, but always felt her character was a little flat. Oddly enough, the writers seemed to nod to this when Marshall commented "You hardly even know her." But the new Stella is starting off strong. She has personality, interacts with characters other than Ted, and even shows up outside of her office!

Although these character expansions are great, I would like to express my concern, however, that Marshall and Lily will end up taking the backseat from now on. I admit they aren't the show's central characters, but I've always had a fondness for the quirky-but-truly-in-love couple.

HIMYM made a triumphant return tonight, and based on the top-notch writing of tonight's episode, I can't wait to see what they do with the plot lines and characters now brimming with potential.

A

Heroes - "The Second Coming" and "The Butterfly Effect"

So Heroes is back and still boring. The brilliance of the show from its first season was that it had all of the characters in different places but working towards the same goal. In tonight's two episodes, the characters were all over the place and each dealing with their own issues. This would probably be fine if the show didn't bounce us around all over the place, making it hard to care about one issue for longer than that scene. Since this is the premiere, I think I need to address each plot thread and figure out what's going:

1. Peter/Future Peter: Obviously in the future, things all went wrong and the only way for Peter to stop it is to go back to the past and become a bad guy. This is kind of confusing. Is he good in the future or just as good as one could be? He was far too moody in the present tense, so that's going to have to change for me to care. Additionally, whatever happened to his Irish girlfriend? She got left behind in the future last season and was forgotten about. Not even a mention of her tonight.

2. Nathan/Linderman: When it seemed like Nathan found God, I was prepared to turn off the TV and never watch Heroes again. Luckily they seemed to have saved us from that by turning Nathan into Hurley. Why Linderman is there I'm not so sure, but it appears the writers had wanted to do something with Nathan as a Congressman and so they've gone back and found a way for him to do it again. What also needs to be addressed is why he survived. I'm sure that this will play out over the course of the season, but a simple explanation here would have helped me understand this thread a little bit better.

3. Mohinder/Maya: This was a weirdly set up and hardly used thread. Maya again was just sort of useless and didn't really contribute anything more than a sudden epiphany in Mohinder that happened so quickly that it's almost a shock he didn't think of it two seasons ago. Mohinder did the stupid thing and got some weird combination of super strength and agility, but when he did, be became a total sleezeball. His weird peeling at the end should give me a little something to care about next week, but we'll see.

4. Claire: Her taped almost train jumping was one of the lamest things this show has ever done. It looked like it was going to go on her MySpace. Her encounter with Sylar was very creepy, but started and stopped so suddenly that it fit awkwardly into the episode. I understand her "not being human" thing, but really her plot sort of stalled out. It looks like she's on the brink of bad, but the writers need something compelling to keep their most compelling character interesting.

5. Hiro/Ando: The best part of the entire evening was watching Kaito tell Hiro he shouldn't have opened the safe. His new nemesis will be fun because she seems like the perfect foil for the usually whimsical Hiro. His new found power made him a little less full of bubbly optimism and his discovery that future Ando kills him sort of made Hiro a bit of a disappointment tonight. The best part about the character is that he's always been the fun one. Tonight he was just a bit too serious.

6. Sylar/Mamma Patrelli/Bennett/The Company: So Bob is dead, Elle is out, and Mamma Patrelli is in control all of the sudden. These poorly set up new bad guys have escaped with good Peter in the body of Weevil and Bennett is going to hunt them down. Seems like these are all really just facts, not really anything to ponder. On the other hand, we now know Sylar doesn't eat brains, but just sort of fiddles around with them. He was super creepy in his scene with Claire, and now he seems unstoppable. I'm actually excited to see what they do with him now, especially with the implication that he's a third Patrelli boy, so that is going to be what I'll focus on the most next week.

7. Nikki/Not Nikki/Parkman: Parkman was completely irrelevant in this episode except for that we've met some guy in the African desert who likes Brittany Spears and Sprint. The mysterious new Not Nikki character however was just a step above that. Sure she offered Nathan a job, but really all we found out is that maybe there's another personality a la Jessica running around that can freeze people to death. I'm interested in that too.

8. Loose Ends: Where were Micah and Monica? What happened to the real Nikki Sanders? Why was Bob so unceremoniously killed off? Why is Claire jaded in the future? Where did Future Peter get the power to put people in other people's bodies? What is Claire's mom's involvement in The Company? That group of bad guys in Mamma Patrelli's dream looked intense, when do see them in action? Will this show get really good again?

The Second Coming: C
The Butterfly Effect: C+

Entourage - "The All Out Fall Out"

So last night we finally got to see Vince start making the steps towards rebounding his career, albeit just financially. His first step came in the form of singing a song at the sweet sixteen party of the daughter of Kevin Pollack and Fran Drescher. It was refreshing to see a couple of actors not playing themselves for a change, and very refreshing to see Fran Drescher wasn't obnoxious. The plot of the scenario was pretty weak, mostly focusing around Drama's latest collapse, but had its bright moments. The biggest thing I disliked about it all was that Turtle was hardly even there. So far this season, he's only been the smart ass dropping one liners occasionally, but really hasn't been as funny or used as well as he has been in the past. Eric was practically worthless in this episode. It seems all they really have him doing this season is calling Ari to report on what's going on. They need to find a place for these two characters, otherwise it's going to get very boring very fast.

It seems fitting that on the same night Jeremy Piven won Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, this episode, in which he literally was kicking ass and taking names, should air. The adventures of Ari are always the best when they show is human side as well as his agent side, and I'd say that this episode definitely had that. While the prank war was not really a unique idea (see: How I Met Your Mother), the way they set it all up was. When the cops ripped off their shirts, I about died laughing. The culmination of it all, in which Ari defends the honor of his wife and comes home and acts like a truly caring dad was one of the moments in which Ari doesn't come off as a really human and oddly touching moment that shows that as loud and crude as Ari Gold is, he's a family man at heart.

Overall, I'd say this episode was very reminiscent of the first couple of seasons, in which the rich Hollywood game was played with a touch of silliness thrown in. Between T.I.'s desire to do a movie with Meryl Streep and the super rich family that is throwing a party for their slutty 16 year old, this was like Entourage of old. We'll see if they can keep this up next week.

Grade: B+

The Emmys - Less Irrelevant Than the Grammys: A Live Blog

Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia - "Mac and Dennis: Manhunters"/"The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis"

Apologies for the lateness of this review. That's why I'm the blog's Wildcard!

But seriously, folks. Sunny is back after a landmark season last year. And with a special hour long edition. I may be in the minority but I actually hate it when they run two episodes back to back. Its only a 13 episode season and it went by so fast last year.

Nonetheless, these two episodes brought the funny. In the first, Mac and Dennis decide to emulate "The Most Dangerous Game" by hunting poor Rickety Cricket. I love that they manage to keep bringing him back and somehow make his life even worse than they left it last time. A highlight was Cricket's run up the fire escape. Of course, Rickety starts doing better under the tutelege of Frank, who seems to confuse his own history with that of Rambo.

Frank was also the inspiration for the B-plot, Dee and Charlie becoming convinced that they've tasted of human flesh and found it sweet. I enjoyed this storyline more than the other one and it generated my favorite moment of the episode, their arrival at the morgue with a hot plate.

While Manhunters was good, it was The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis that won the evening for me. The mayhem here was inspired and I loved Mac, Charlie, and Dennis defining their roles as, respectively, the Brains, the Wild Card, and the Looks. Add in Frank as the Muscle and Dee as the Useless Girl and you've got a can't beat team. The scene in the bank was priceless (why don't you bang all three of us!) and the ending was hilarious. All in all, this was an excellent start to the season.

Mac and Dennis: Manhunters - B
The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis - A-

See you guys in a half hour for the liveblog!

Heroes Season 3 Preview

The AP had the following story on the new season of Heroes (written by Frazier Moore):
Back for its third season, "Heroes" is confronting high expectations from its besotted fans. And also a bit of resistance from former and would-be fans who couldn't make heads or tails of the show last season.

"Message: We care," the producers have been saying as they promised to get "Heroes" heroic again.

But to judge from the season premiere (a second hour airing Monday wasn't offered for review), the series has met with only mixed success.

The look and style of "Heroes" is as grand as ever. Everything about the show's design, including the lettering for the captions and the eerie three-note musical signature, feels like part of a marvelously unified package.

If only that package could contain the series' plodding mishmash of a story. At the risk of sounding feeble-minded or, even worse, un-cool, I again ask the question I've asked about "Heroes" so many times before: What is going on?

The murky, brooding, free-range narrative seems to glory in its abstractions. The action hop-scotches around the world, and back and forth through time. The internal logic of the show seems always ready to defer to the situation at hand. And the characters have multiplied like roaches.

There's a grandiose goal at the bottom of it all (saving the world, y'know), in the face of fierce opposition. But is this existential tug of war really going anywhere? Couldn't everybody stop, relax their scowls and take a chill pill - just once?

I've always admired "Heroes" for its epic, sprawling vision - up to a point. But an occasional save-the-world pronouncement isn't sufficient to maintain coherence. Not with this scattered affair.

Another Always Sunny Interview

Ahead of tonight's season premiere, the guys from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia sat down with Paste magazine to talk about this season, being portrayed as jerks, and almost getting beat up in Atlanta. It seems that we're going to see the return of Greenman, an episode set in 1776, and a Nightman musical. Be sure to check out the premiere tonight at 10 EST on FX.

Amy Poehler to Leave SNL

Sad but true. Amy Poehler will be leaving SNL following the Election in November to have her first child and prepare for her new NBC sitcom. It seems also that this previously mentioned sitcom is not necessarily the "Office" spin-off, but simply a show developed by "Office" executive producers Greg Daniels and Mike Schur. Poehler's exit means its time for SNL's young cast to get in shape. While Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Will Forte, Andy Samberg, and Jason Sedakas are funny, all of them have been jumping on film roles and guest spots without really concentrating too much on SNL. We all know that to make the successful transition to film from SNL, you have to be the funniest person on SNL (see: Belushi, Chase, Meyers, Ferrel, Fey, and many many more) as opposed to a bad supporting cast member making bad movies (see: Rob Schinder and Jay Mohr). Hopefully they'll set it up a notch and bring SNL back to the glory days. For now though, we have some Election Specials on the horizon...

Fringe - "The Same Old Story"

After seeing this week's episode I think I'm a lot clearer on where I stand on Fringe, which still seems to be figuring out exactly what kind of TV show it wants to be.

Starting with the opening sequence which was just killer (groan). The scenario is one we see opening TV shows a lot: mysterious man in a hotel with a woman up to no good. However, quickly we get to the twist when, in one of the freakest scenes I've ever seen on TV, the woman goes through the entire process of pregnancy in about a half hour and gives birth to a child who ages and dies before sunrise. It was shocking, creepy, and disturbing in all the best ways and it is a scene, perhaps even moreso than last week's airplane moment, that throws the gauntlet down and says that Fringe is willing to take some chances.

I also thought the character dynamics improved a lot in this episode. Peter seemed a lot more useful this time and his relationship with Walter is developing some genuine pathos, which is nice. Walter continues to be great (my favorite moment was him making popcorn during the climactic showdown), and Olivia is also becoming a little more human. The business with her partner is still not terribly compelling, but her relationship with Broyles and especially Sharp, whose Massive Dynamics gets more terrifying with each episode.

However, this episode also demonstrated how Fringe can go wrong, namely by becoming a sci-fi version of Criminal Minds. All the stuff with the serial killer murdering women in a gruesome way came straight off of the CBS assembly line and, while it turned out that he actually needed to grab their pituitary glands to survive, this week's story still seemed somewhat tired. I know Abrams and Co. have said they want to keep this show less dense than Lost, but that doesn't mean they need to go the obvious route.

The last ten or so minutes did a lot to redeem the episode, however. Olivia's conversation with Sharp made Massive Dynamics sound a whole lot more evil than they did last week. And from what Walter was saying to Olivia at the end, it sounds like Peter may be a clone. And the final scene was kind of touching (right now the Peter and Walter relationship may be the most interesting one the show has).

Ultimately Fringe succeeds when it puts its sci-fi foot before its crime procedural one. The scenes in the lab, the creepy opening and closing scenes, and anything involving Massive Dynamics or Walter works terrifically. However, its going to become increasingly difficult to get involved in the show if 20-30 minutes are dominated by stories as rote as this week. I'm not worried about it for now, since last week's mystery seemed a lot more unique than this one, and even The X-Files had its share of weak mysteries. However, as long as The X-Files remains a more apt point of comparison for the show than Criminal Minds then I think we'll be in good shape.

B-

Interview with NPH

In keeping with our grand, day-old tradition of stealing material from The A.V. Club, here's an interview with Television Rules the Nation hero Neil Patrick Harris. Sure he's probably best known as Barney on How I Met Your Mother (which starts Monday! 8:30!), but I think he'll always be Dr. Horrible to me. Here he is talking about the Dr. Horrible DVD:

I think Joss is mid-construction of the DVD extras. They're trying to get people to submit films of themselves applying to join the Evil League Of Evil. They've finished writing the songs for the musical commentary track, singing about the making of the film. [Laughs.] But I assume since Dollhouse is almost up and running, and he's dealing with Fox and that whole rigmarole, that it's become a bit back-burner.

While there's no big news on the HIMYM front, he does go a little into the long-term future:

I'm having the time of my life on the show. I really am. It's one of those rare, great parts that seem easy for them to write crazy things for. I love it. I have no intention of going away bitterly wishing I had a revived film career. I'm thrilled with this gig. I've acted plenty, so I'm looking ahead to producing my own Sesame Street show some day, and being a late-night talk-show host that does variety acts.

All in all its a really great interview (as usual from the A.V. Club) so make sure to check it out.

Also, A BRIEF PROGRAMMING NOTE: I apologize for all my recaps being a day behind, I'm currently working on something every night from 7-11, which means I can't watch everything until I can get it from ITunes the next day. It'll only be for another couple of weeks though.

EDIT: I found this online. If you love HIMYM, you'll love this

Gossip Girl - The Dark Night

Well from the sublime to the ridiculous it seems. For a detailed explanation of my thoughts on Gossip Girl as a whole, you can go here. In short, there are few shows I have as much contempt for as this one, and yet the writers have somehow stumbled upon a premise that is relevant and interesting and I'm not quite ready to give it up yet.

Last night's episode was, as usual, pretty dodgy. The weekly party was a back-to-school bash being thrown by Blair, who's still with that bland English lord. Seriously, that guy has somehow managed to have less personality than Nate, which is no easy task. And its still unclear to me why he's so in love with Blair when she has been incredibly and overtly shallow and obnoxious to him. Is he just a moron? I understand that the writers need for this to happen, but couldn't they at least have put a little effort into making it convincing?

Meanwhile, Chuck continues to pine over Blair. The writers had definitely hit on something by getting them together last season, but they seem to have missed the point. Blair and Chuck's games work best when there's lots of collateral damage and when they're truly evil. They're missing a lot of opportunities by making Chuck's scheming both pathetic and directed solely at Blair. Things come to a head when we get the titular blackout, followed by the scene where Blair has sex with Chuck. I'm glad she knew that it wasn't BL (British Lord), but that's still a pretty big contrivance.
Are things finally over between her and BL? It didn't seem like it, but I guess we'll have to wait to find out.

Nate has the opposite problem: for once he's caught up in a plotline that doesn't suck, but he's still too bland for me to truly care. This week Vanessa found out that he's sleeping with BL's stepmom and was none too happy. However, she forgave Nate and then made him go with BLSM anyway, because BLSM would rat out Nate's dad if she didn't. I like Vanessa a lot, even though I'm not really clear on how she is able to afford to live in Brooklyn and shop at Urban Outfitters as much as she does. But this whole Nate thing seemed like it was just going to be a rehash of the Dan-Serena storyline, so I'm glad to see this go in a different direction. As for Nate, seriously dude, try acting for once. The mop in those Swifter ads has more charisma than you.

Onto the swirling vortex of stupid that is Dan and Serena, where there was good and bad. First the good, which was the scene when they came upon Gossip Girl's 12 year old army. This show is at its best when Gossip Girl is a participant in the action, and the scene where Dan and Serena's "fans" came up to them and starting harassing them about their love life was all kinds of perfect. I'll make this point a lot, but Gossip Girl is best when its commenting on the tabloid culture, and there are few scenes that have done that better than this one (it was a delightfully meta moment to boot). Now the bad: everything that happened after that. Did the writers not show up to work the day they wrote this scene? Or did everyone just forget that they had the EXACT SAME conversation in the finale. Remember? There was Death Cab for Cutie and everything? You waste three hours of my time faking me into thinking they'll get back together and you can't even come up with a new reason not to go through with it?

Oh yeah, Jenny's still on this show too. Call me when you become a mean girl again.

So, to recap, this week was just okay and what little scandal there was didn't make up for the lazy writing. In the battle for my sanity, Gossip Girl has won this round, but its still far from over.

C

Weeds - "If You Work For a Living, Then Why Do You Kill Yourself Working?"

Before I even start talking in detail about this episode, I want to throw out there that this was the best episode of Weeds to date. Too much over the last four seasons have plot lines stayed stagnant or developed too quickly out of nowhere. Last night's episode has been building now for the last four years, and it's ending will leave fans begging for more until next season.

The first thing to discuss is Nancy's predicament. Ever since the first season, the looming question is how can she do all of this without getting caught. In the past there has been a quick escape where she can convince her kids and Andy that everything is going to be okay until the next disaster and she's fine. Usually this happens with her sarcastic take on the world, causing her only to be serious when she needs to be. This episode showed that maybe that won't be possible this time. In "If You Work For a Living..." there were no humorous moments from Nancy (except her telling the woman on the phone to stop talking). Instead, we saw her finally coming to terms with everything, and I've got to say, it was refreshing. Though a couple of times before she has broken down about her failures as a mother, this was the first time that everything seemed to hit her. Her call to the gift store was humorous, but very touching and tragic at the same time. It was good to see for once that Nancy is legitimately scared and an "I'm sorry" to her family might not be enough.

Looking back at past finales, she found out Peter was in the DEA, was held at gunpoint, and burned down her house and fled Agrestic. In the first two of these finales, she was left with a problem to solve at the next season. In Season 3, it was about her moving on and fixing her problems. But this season finale was vastly different. Nancy is in trouble now. Caesar has had a weary eye on her from his first screen appearance and my guess is that no matter what Esteban tries to do, Caesar will go after her. Additionally, we saw Guillermo, albeit briefly, but long enough to suggest we're not done with him and perhaps he's not done with Nancy. Just because she's carrying Esteban's kid doesn't mean this is going to be over. Esteban went from a substitute for Conrad to something a lot more. For him, Nancy is a traitor, a lover, and now a mother, and what he does will be very interesting.

As for the other arcs we saw in this episode, the return of Quinn Hodes was probably my favorite. She mentioned she was going to ransom Dean for Celia, but she evidently doesn't know that the two hate each other. What I do know is, I'm certainly glad that's not my family. The first outright mention of Andy's crush on Nancy was a long time coming, but his awkwardness in the bathroom and his speech to the boys about Nancy were a little very human and reminded me of the Andy of Seasons 1 and 2. The plot of Shane starting to use and deal was the only weak part of the episode, as it didn't show us anything new. Silas' awkward break up with Lisa to me was secondary to his almost breakdown when he talked about Nancy failing him as a mother. Silas has always seemed to not care about his mother, but it was made apparent here that he does, deep down. The funniest part of the entire episode though was Doug's letter. I'm sure I'm not the only one that thought for sure he was going to kill himself. The fact that it was just Doug being Doug though made it hilarious and the bright spot in an otherwise very dark episode.

As is apparent, there are a lot of issues that will be nagging at fans over the summer. Looking back at this season as a whole was a return to form for the show. To me, the best season is still the first, but this one might be better than the second, and definitely better than the third. At the end of last season, I wasn't terribly excited for it to come back, but today, all I want are more new episodes of Weeds.

Grade: A+

Always Sunny Interview/Preview

The guys from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia stopped by the AV Club for a nice interview that included a previews of Season 4. Here are a few highlights:
Charlie Day (Charlie): "Wait 'til this season. There'll be some more music coming. There's a musical on the way. Charlie's opus. And the gang performs it."
Glenn Howerton (Dennis): "We have a very exciting episode called, "Mac and Charlie Die." I'm excited about that one. Pretty epic episode. We've also got an entire episode where we try and sell Paddy's [Pub] as a historical monument in Philadelphia. And so, in order to prove that Paddy's has a tremendous amount of historical significance for the birth of our nation, we actually flash back to the year 1776. Almost the entire episode takes place in the year 1776. So it'll basically be our characters in corsets, and baggy half-pants, and flowing shirts. [Laughs.] Pointy hats, and things like that."

Be sure to read the entire interview here and catch the Season Premiere of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia this Thursday on FX.

Mad Men - "A Night to Remember"

So after last week's fireworks display, Mad Men managed to keep its momentum and come with another mind-blowingly awesome episode.

Let's start with Peggy, who said my favorite line of the episode, "this is how it works and I'm better than them." Peggy's always been my favorite character, and it was good to see her back in action, even if it was in a smaller plotline. Her scene with the angry church women was awesome and her moment in the office was powerful. However, I'm not sure how sold I am on this priest storyline. I trust the writers that its going somewhere (and that when it gets there it will be awesome) but for now it seems like there are other directions I'd be more interested in seeing them take her.

On to Joan, who is indeed "so much woman" (Warren, the person responsible for that line which could just as easily have come from the forums at TWOP, is my new favorite character). Joan followed in Peggy's footsteps by being given an advertising assignment from the frazzled Harry. And she excelled at it, until she lost her position. Joan's been floating around a lot of these ideas all season (she's getting older and in need of a boost of self-worth) and its nice to see this start to really develop.

But of course the big action of this episode was with the Drapers, as poor Betty tried dealing with last week's events the same way she did in season 1: by suppressing her feelings. But that isn't working anymore and the result is her finally standing up to Don. That scene was probably January Jones' best work so far (she tends to get overshadowed by the other women) and it was a long time coming. Noel at the AV Club makes an interesting point: that maybe she was angrier at realizing how calculating Don really is: everything's a pitch with him. That's an interesting idea, but given the historical time period we're dealing with, I think what we're seeing is Betty starting to wake up to her own independence. She's seeing less and less of a reason why she has to put up with Don's shenanigans.

Grade: A-

Entourage - "Unlike a Virgin"

Last night's Entourage was the episode that should have happened a long time ago. Ever since the first episode, Vince has been portrayed as an unstoppable movie god that could do no wrong, even when he did. In "Unlike a Virgin" however, he finally got the comeuppance he deserved after dropping out of the "Aquaman" sequel.

The crux of this episode was easily the question of Vince's career. Last week we saw him struggle with returning to Hollywood and this week we got to finally see him struggle with his own failures. Ever since we saw the brief clips from "Queen's Boulevard," I've always thought of Vince as a particularly poor actor that, somehow, survives every bad decision that he and Eric make. Sure, there needs to be drama and everything can't go well, but the fact that Vince has been untouchable has always bothered me. Finally, we saw Ari tell him the truth: he needs to stop screwing over Hollywood if he wants to make more films. It was refreshing to finally get something realistic in this show, which in the last season and a half has shifted from being about playing the Hollywood game and more about living the life of a movie star.

The secondary plots of the episode were actually pretty good. When we found out Drama had kept his girlfriend in last week's premiere, I knew it was only a matter of time before his quirks would get in the way and somehow sabotage it. The way it played out was classic Drama, but that doesn't seem to get old to me. Turtle also provided some of the funniest bits of the episode with his attempts to score with the girl at the video wrap party. The only thing I actually didn't like about the episode was Eric's attempt to get the hillbillies to be his clients. This plot line so far has been done only halfway, so if the writers want it to be intregal, they need to step it up. Otherwise, good episode.

Grade: A-

P.S. Since we're poor college students, shows on premium cable channels for the most part won't get reviewed until the night after it airs, but all network and basic cable shows should be up that night.

Fringe - "Pilot"

Although making its debut tonight, the pilot episode of Fringe got out, making this early review possible (I'll avoid big spoilers as much as I can, but you may want to wait until after watching the show to read this). Since the writer's strike sabotaged pilot season this year, Fringe was the only new show that I was looking forward to (since Dollhouse doesn't come until January). And all in all, despite a being much slower than what we've come to expect from JJ Abrams, it did not disappoint.

Pitched as J.J. Abrams makes The X-Files (a description that's pretty on point), Fringe kicks off with a bang. We're on an airplane (again) where something horrible is about to happen. I don't want to give it away, but what happens on the plane is pretty messed up and starts off the show nicely. Unfortunately, after that things kind of grind to a halt to introduce us to the two main characters. First is Olivia Dunham, an FBI agent played by newcomer Anna Torv. Dunham certainly has potential to be interesting, but none of that potential really manifests itself as she goes through the expository motions that lead her to main character number 2: Dawson's Creek's Joshua Jackson (who, if we're being honest, will always be Charlie from The Mighty Ducks) Jackson is Peter Bishop, the conman son of a mad scientist named Walter whose knowledge of "fringe science" (which apparently is like pseudoscience, but crazier) is the only lead Dunham has. To break him out of his asylum, Olivia needs Peter's help. Jackson's charming enough, playing the voice-of-reason type character, but again he doesn't actually contribute much of value to this particular episode.

If it sounds like I'm being too hard on Fringe, that's because the first hour is somewhat tedious to get through. But if you make it to the second, you'll be rewarded with all kinds of great stuff. John Noble dominates the show as Walter Bishop, who really kicks things into motion when he attempts to have Olivia blend her subconscious with that of her unconscious partner (a scheme which involves her dropping acid and submerging herself in a tank of water). Its also here where we begin to get an idea of what the big picture might be: something called The Pattern. The Pattern is a series of crazy, unexplained phenomena, almost as if someone (or something) is using the entire planet as some kind of laboratory. That someone may be Massive Dynamics, a Dharma Initiative-style corporation whose founder has ties to Walter. In many ways, this represents the most interesting tweak to The X-Files formula: no longer is the government the primary concern. Instead it seems that to be a genius with a desire for a massive conspiracy in the 21st century requires one to go into the private sector. Its the Walter-Massive Dynamics-Pattern relationship that drives the show, although I'd be remiss not to point out the presence of the always awesome Lance Reddick. Reddick is somewhat underutilized here (except for one scene where he basically lays out the concept of the show), but he's clearly going to be around for a while and his interactions with Anna Torv were quite strong.

Once it starts getting into the crazy science and corporate conspiracies, it seems like Fringe finds its legs. The show suffers from being the shadow of Abrams' other two greater, paradigm shifting intros (Alias and Lost), but both of those shows also suffered in the long run from having less malleable premises. Abrams and Co. are dealing with some interesting ideas here and the show sets up a dynamic between its three leads that should develop well over time.
Grade: B

P.S. In case you haven't been following the Fringe ARG (I don't know about you but I always find those things take up too much time for too little reward), but this post on io9 summarizes the coolest part. As long as they can come up with crazy stuff like this, I'll be watching every week.

Weeds - "Till We Meet Again"

Well a seemingly stagnant season of Weeds just got broken wide open. My biggest complaint about this season has been the the plot for the second half has dragged on. Ever since Nancy started working at the maternity store, the only significant events have been her relationship with Esteban, Shane getting weirder, Silas hooking up with Jack's wife, Celia's drug habit and the misadventures of Andy and Doug. But the drug plot line that worked so well back in Seasons 1 and 2 has been reduced significantly. All of that changed a few weeks ago when Nancy told the DEA to bust the tunnel. They did (in a scene reminiscent on the climatic scene in "The Godfather"), and the results are not so good for Nancy. It appears that Esteban may love her, but his crew doesn't. Like her relationship with Peter in Season 2, Nancy is walking a thin line and, like before, looks like it's gonna bite her in the butt. Shane and Silas briefly appeared to discuss whether it was worse for a tween to have sex or smoke weed. Andy had sex with Mermex and then told Doug, causing him to briefly seem okay about it, and then turn around and call Immigration. I think my favorite element of this episode was Celia's realization that she could start over. There got to be a point where the "Celia is a bitch" plot line got old, and though she still wasn't very nice to Dean, the fact that Quinn will apparently come back for next week's finale is pretty exciting. Obviously the show lost the actress after the pilot, but it has been a pretty significant plot hole since she disappeared in Episode 2. "Till We Meet Again" was a great setup episode for next week's finale, where a lot is going to go down. It's going to be a long week.
Grade: A-

Entourage - "Fantasy Island"

When we last saw the guys, Vince and E had just gotten their teeth kicked in at Cannes, Drama was consummating his relationship with a French woman on the beach, and Ari and Turtle were...well, no different than they had been. So when we picked back up with the boys on Sunday night, it was great to see that Vince was taking it hard, E was ignoring it as best he could, Drama was iChatting with his French girl, and Ari and Turtle haven't changed a bit. That, essentially, is all that really came out in this episode. The now identical combination of Ari and E were pressed with the task of bringing Vince back from his girl-filled paradise in Mexico to meet with a director about a film, since apparently Vince gets as many chances as he wants. Turns out though, it's all an elaborate plot to make sure that Speed Racer got the role instead. Overall, I'd say this episode was actually rather dull. All we really got out of it was the Ari, E, and Vince were hit hard by their flop, but they're ready to turn around. Since I obviously don't know what's going to continue to happen, this is only a guess, but I think this episode was functioning as a transition from the flop of "Medellian" to the rebound that Vince will undoubtedly have this season. But alas, time will tell. For now, it's just good to have the boys back.
Grade: B