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