Thursday, November 15th, 2007
05:30 Friday Night Lights
06:30 Damages
07:30 My Boys
08:00 House
09:00 Samantha Who?
09:30 Back To You
10:00 Rules Of Engagement
11:00 Extras
11:30 Cavemen
Friday Night Lights. Episode 22. For once, the football drama that doesn't usually feature many football scenes devoted lots and lots of the episode to "The Big Game". And, we got to see some of the plotlines we've been following all season come to fruition. Others, strangely, just faded away. So, on one hand, I was delighted to see so much quality time devoted to the Taylors and a couple of great conversations between Tyra Collette and Lyla Garrity, on the other hand I was disappointed that the Lyla-Jason romance/break-up got almost no screen-time. Neither did the Tyra-Lance (I mean Landry) storyline. Had this been a series finale, it would have sucked, but it wasn't. And it was a cool episode devoted almost exclusively to Eric Taylor.
Damages. Episode 8. In the middle of this tangled web of lies and double lies, we get to Larry's story. Larry has been secretly working with the bad guy all along and in this episode, this information is brought to the attention of Patty Hewes. And, in what is definitely Patty's best scene so far, she goes to his house and takes him down, right in front of his family. Awesome. Meanwhile, after an episode of enduring the The Worst Assistant Ever, Ellen finally grows a pair and (in another very cool scene) fires him. Sure, it's probably a sad moment, since it's symbolic of her selling her soul or something, but it was still cool to watch. A great episode. My only complaint? The actual mechanism of getting Patty to find out that Larry was a double agent was a bit clumsy and simplistic for a show this complex. We are asked to believe that Ray Fiske, a very clever guy, would fall into her trap that easily and mention the exact amount of money she mentioned to Larry earlier? I don't think so.
My Boys. Episode 22. The best new sit-com of 2006/7 ended it's first run with one of the best season finales I have ever seen. It was funny, it had heart, it gave all the regulars something important to do, it brought back several characters from earlier episodes and - most important - it faded to black on a truly awesome cliff-hanger.
House. Season 4, Episode 7. The a-story was called "ugly" and it featured a disfigured boy. The b-story looked at House's inability to get past the good looks of his beautiful co-workers. When described it sounds gauche, yet the exection was flawless from start to finish and the result/juxtaposition made for another perfect episode of House.
Samantha Who? Episode 5. While this was the weakest installment so far, it was still very funny, and Samantha was still utterly adorable as she set out to resolve her "Daddy-issues".
Back To You. Episode 7. Once again, the writers find a clever way to keep the characters together in a non-work setting. And, since this is a very funny emsemble, it leads to a lot of laughs as they chase a raccoon around a suburban house. Patricia Heaton has started to grow on me, I must admit, but the star of the show is always Ty Burrell.
Rules Of Engagement. Season 2, Episode 8. While not the best episode so far, this is probably the first where all the storylines were equally good. My favourite was Russell's: he stayed in an elevator for several days to meet a cute girl he had spied, everyone he met thought this was a really romantic gesture, but when he met the girl again, he was maced for his trouble. But, across the board, this episode generated a lot of laughs. And it's great to see a battle-of-the-sexes storyline that doesn't rely on Jeff behaving like a dimwit for the first twenty minutes to keep it in motion.
Extras. Season 2, Episode 6. Not with a bang, but with a whimper? Wow. While there was still a lot to enjoy here, this series finale of Extras ended things in a very ordinary way. The Robert De Niro cameo was cool, but the storyline of the sick kid didn't deserve all those scenes. It basically took up the whole episode, when all the laughs for it were in the first scene. Disappointing, to say the least. One duff episode? And it's the last one!
Cavemen. Episode 5. Oh, dear. A major backward slide with the least funny episode so far. Nick was annoying and Joel was boring in this one. Andy's story, however, got some laughs thanks to the incredibly hot Stephanie Lemelin. Andy, she discovers, has quite a lot of road rage and it gets her in the mood very fast whenever he cuts loose. Andy, of course, is oblivious to this. Lots of laughs to be had, leading to my favourite line in the episode: "Why don't we wait out all this traffic? Pull into one of these cheap motels!"
Highlight? My Boys.
Back To You, Cavemen, Damages, Extras, Friday Night Lights, House, My Boys, Rules Of Engagement, Samantha Who?
