The Blogulator Presents: Episode of the Month, May 2012

It's been a crazy TV month in May, what with a month chock-full of cliffhangers, season-enders, and all-out balls-to-the-walls craziness. The Blogulator crew is here to discuss their favorite of that batch of individual episodes of the month. Bring it, gang.




Game of Thrones, "Blackwater", Aired 5/27/12 on HBO

We're now two seasons into this show and, much like how the novels are structured the penultimate episode of each season ends up being a total gutpunch. Whereas last season's "Baelor" was a gutpunch on a purely "holy @#$%, they just killed the show's biggest star!" level, the masterful "Blackwater", scripted by book author George R.R. Martin and directed by Neil Marshall, director of The Blogulator's favorite film of 2005 The Descent, is a gutpunch on an epic scale. And as we know from The Descent, few directors are as good at directing action sequences in the dark as Marshall is. Yet, it's the small scenes between just a few of the major characters that keep the episode grounded. Tyrion and Joffrey's banter before executing their plan is hilarious and true to both of their characters, while Cersei's downward spiral aided by a whole lotta wine gives her character an added layer of sadness, even though we also know she's pretty much a bad person. All of this makes the emotional devastation on Tyrion Lannister's face when he executes the "wildfire" plan as epic as the physical devastation of A Crapload Of Boats And People On Fire And Lit All Green. [Qualler]

Smash, "Bombshell", Aired 5/14/12 on NBC

 You guys probably realize by now that I don’t watch a lot of TV when it airs (why would I watch real TV when Netflix offers all 7 seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space 9??), so my choices for best episode of May were limited to two episodes of Smash.  Whoops.  So the Smash season finale, “Bombshell” it is!  And, really, if you remove all the stupid personal drama, all the cheating and the breaking up and the dating of celibate baseball fans, and just leave the professional drama of the musical itself, this episode is pretty good.  This is the first time we’ve been able to see the songs of Bombshell in succession, which mostly makes me want to see the fictional musical Bombshell. (So much tap dancing!) Plus, Karen’s performance gives at least a whiff of justification for her apparent inbred talent, something which has been self-evident to everyone involved in the show except its audience.  (Ivy is still way better, though.) (Can Meghan Hilty just have her own show?) (Can it also star Kristen Chenoweth?) (Can it take place in my apartment so that we can all be friends?)  Millennial Ellis has finally been fired, Dev is gone (sadly), and the show faces a second season of new creative direction and writing.  The rapidly-put-together final song, “Don’t Forget Me”, was beautiful and wonderfully sung, giving promise to a much-improved second season.  That Ivy swallowed a handful of pills in the last shot of the episode is something that I’ll willfully choose to ignore. [Sam]

Don't Trust The B---- In Apartment 23, "The Wedding...", Aired 5/2/12 on ABC

Comedies usually take a while to get going. Much like The Office and Parks & Recreation, Apartment 23 premiered mid-season and only a few episodes to make an impression (only 7 episodes this first season). But, much like Happy Endings before it, Apartment 23 has quickly developed into a hang-out show with characters that bounce off of one another interestingly and entertainingly. I'm not sure how far into production this episode was made(it's common practice for networks to shuffle eps around to put the best foot forward), but it can't have been too late as it includes James Van Der Beek's plotline of becoming a contestant on Dancing With The Stars (which is one of the many wonderful ideas this show has had). Whatever the case, this was one of the funniest episodes of television I've seen this season and it's also a great entry point for anyone that hasn't watched the show yet. In this episode, June is feeling depressed and decides to let loose, letting Chloe mold her into a fun-having machine. It turns into a Single White Female thing wherein June becomes so fun, JVDB starts hanging out with her more than Chloe. This all leads to a lot of great stuff for both Dreama Walker ("June") and Krysten Ritter ("Chloe") to play. There's also JVDB dancing and clips of him in a fake Guy Ritchie movie. All terrific stuff that shows what this now up-to-snuff series can do. This ep raised Apartment 23 to the ranks of Happy Endings, Community, Cougar Town and Parks & Rec as one of the funniest network comedies. [sarCCastro]

Mad Men "The Other Woman" Aired 5/27/12 on AMC

Everyone that knows who Joan Harris (née Holloway) is will likely be talking about this episode for years. We'll be at the senior center for our pancake feed, complaining about the haircuts the kids have these days, and one of the volunteers pouring us pulp-free orange juice will have crimson red hair. One of us will say to the other, "whoa, she looks like Joan fromMad Men L-O-L." And then the other one will say, "awww I miss having Don Draper on my TV every week." And then the first one will respond with, "oh man, remember when Pete pimped out Joan to that Jaguar guy?" The conversation will then drown in a flood of nostalgia that the kids with the bad haircuts and the redheaded juice pourer will not understand one iota. It may not be the most powerful episode of the vanguard series, and it's certainly not my favorite episode of Mad Men (it's not even my favorite of this season), but it needs to be noted here because it's a touchstone for its ballsy "it-went-there" storytelling, officially placing the series in a pantheon of not only great dramas, but fantastic conversation starters. I still feel weird about it, and am not sure I want to be having this conversation about our dear beloved Joan, but it's a hell of a conversation nonetheless. And that's why we write about television dammit. [Chris]

Revenge "Reckoning" Aired 5/23/12 on ABC

O. M. G. Revenge knows what a season finale should be.  Holy Hamptons. As soon as the episode begins, you can feel it.  The plot points quickly become infinitely more absurd, the dialogue more stilted, the facial expressions more overly-wrought.  In fact, I would bet that if you cut out all the moments in this episode where a character was just looking at something or someone silently with anger, shocked recognition, or despair, the show would run just ten or fifteen minutes. Without providing too many spoilers, "Reckoning" kills characters (at least two, maybe more!) and relationships, and sets up a hellva season two (long-lost parents! a love triangle, with pregnancy!). The waves of sheer delight and deliciously frothy over-the-topness will inspire many a dream for me until the waves of the Hamptons once again grace my television screen. [Jerksica]

The Best Episodes of the Month: April 2012

As you may know by now, our opinions (about television) here at The Blogulator are valid. And as such as is true, we'd like to start helping you keep track of when the shows we love churn out particularly spellbinding and/or hilarious episodes. Below you will find five different opinions from five different Blogulator contributors as to what were the most successful episodes that aired (or were seen) in April of 2012. If there's one you've missed, get to Hulu, iTunes, Amazon, or your local cable On Demand menu stat!

Mad Men - "Mystery Date" (buy on iTunes or Amazon)

For as many gripes as I've had about the new season of Mad Men, I realize after every episode that my gripes don't really make a whole lotta sense, because this show is still one of the best shows on TV. And, specifically, outside of the somewhat bloated two-hour premiere, this season is knocking every episode out of the park in its own subtle way. Although, "Mystery Date" is perhaps one of Mad Men's least subtle episodes ever. Joan tells Greg to get the eff out of her house, poor little Sally learns about the nightmarish things going on in society, and Don has a literal fever dream nightmare where he freakin' strangles Madchen Amick to death and pushes her under her bed. It's an episode shrouded in darkness, so much so that this fake horror movie trailer made out of the episode actually isn't so far off from the overall tone. It certainly seems to be a harbinger of things to come as the season progresses. [Qualler]

Justified - "Slaughterhouse" (buy on iTunes or Amazon)

A lot rested on the third season finale of Justified. This season was more serialized than the two that preceded it. And with two new adversaries competing with Boyd Crowder for Marshal Raylan Givens' scornful looks, some have said this season tried to do too much in a short amount of time and paled in comparison to Season 2. While it did take a few episodes for Robert Quarles to gain some depth beyond being a wacky, volatile villain, once he did give us a peak into his disturbing past, steely-eyed Neal McDonough's performance jumped into Emmy-worthy status. And every episode subtly layered Mykelti Williamson's performance as Limehouse, a sort of down-home Wizard of Oz, smart enough to know when to strike, be even wiser to know when to just sit back and watch everything play out. And, for the most part, as exceptionally entertaining as this season was, the audience was also forced to sit back and watch how everything played out as well. Luckily, "Slaughterhouse" more than rewarded viewer patience a brutal final confrontation between Quarles, Limehouse and Givens. We were also given the extra payoff of Raylan realizing that, over the course of events spanning the entire series, his father had developed a deeper relationship with Boyd Crowder than he ever did with his own flesh and blood. So deep that to keep Boyd out of jail, Arlo took the fall for killing a man that betrayed Boyd in addition to confessing to shooting a State Trooper. Even just thinking about Raylan saying that Arlo "saw a man in a hat pointing a gun at Boyd" still gives me chills. What a way to cap off a ridiculously enjoyable season while adding one more thing to boil under that hat of our favorite US Marshal. [Sarc]

Revenge - "Scandal" (watch for free on Hulu)

God, this show. I started watching it at the beginning of the season with eyes narrowed in suspicion. The ubiquitous ad campaign and huge hype made me think that, like most things that networks (and studios and publishers) push heavily, it was expensive, but absolutely no good. I didn't think the sweet girl from Everwood could pull off being a cold-hearted vengeance machine, and figured that even if she could, she wouldn't be compelling because she was too inhuman and unlikeable. I didn't like the guy who plays Daniel when he was Max on Make It or Break It (yeah, that's a thing that happened), and don't even get me started on how much I dislike Madeleine Stowe. Nevertheless, I started watching--AND COULDN'T STOP. "Revenge" is probably one of the best shows on television, and for the most part lives up to its hype. Every time you think that the story is about to devolve, that Emily can't possibly lie her way out of this one, the show turns everything around, just to show you how wrong you are. "Revenge" is an intricate dance, a complex perpetual motion machine that defies prediction, and multiple satisfying surprises and twists give the impression that the show has so much more up its sleeve. I picked "Scandal" as my favorite ep of the month, but they're all good; "Scandal" does contain a couple of nice reveals, however--what really happened between Daniel and Tyler on the beach, Emily's emerging, genuine feelings for her ersatz fiance, the unsettlingly obtuse machinations of Emily's revenge master, Takeda (how awesome is it that she has a revenge master?), and heretofore uninteresting Ashley's attempt to leverage the Grayson family tragedy for her own gain by releasing bloody pictures of Daniel at the crime scene to the tabloids. I'm glad the show has another bit of scandal to chew on besides the David Clarke/terrorist/plane crash thing, which has always felt like a wrong note in the show, both because of its "too soon" element (anything that smacks of using a 9/11-ish event as a subplot in what is basically a really good soap opera is, I think, kind of cheap) and its general weird unbelievability. Not that I think it's going away--it's integral to the premise of the show--but the fact that other fucked up things are happening keeps it from turning into a stale old chestnut. Now if someone would just actually straight up kill Amanda, that would be super. [Anna]

Community - "Basic Lupine Urology" (watch for free on Hulu)

It's no secret how much I and 90% of the rest of the nerd contingent of the internet adores the Greendale gang, but upon returning after the dark nightmare that was its third season hiatus, every episode of this show just kept punching me in the groin more than the last - in a good way. And in particular, it took me a few minutes to realize why I loved "Basic Lupine Urology" (AKA the Law & Order ep) even more than the two other perfect episodes the show did this month (the Dr. Who/dreamatorium ep and the Ken Burns/pillow fort ep): because while I maybe wish I had a much deeper understanding of Dr. Who and/or Ken Burns documentaries, I am far more familiar with the tropes and minutiae of Dick Wolf's franchise. Just like great homage/parody Community eps of yore, such as the chicken fingers/GoodFellas one or the Charlie Kaufman/Abed is the Messiah one, every beat is played pitch-perfectly, a couple of my favorite details being the abundance of Greek NYC coffee cups suddenly on campus and Britta's role as the photograph analyzer (which in this case just means she can Instagram it to make it look old-timey). The biggest complaint that many have already hobbled at this twelve-jokes-a-second romp is that it lacks that tender center that deepens our love for the characters like so many forays into the study group's world has before, but I say they just had their cake and ate it too. The episode ends with yet another classic L&O bit, where the climax of solving the case is undercut with an out-of-left-field development that one of the case's primary constituents has died in the most horrifically tragic way possible, and here we got the off-screen death of one of the show's longest-running minor characters: Starburns. It's not huge, but it's a joke and a morbidly hefty moment at once, as we'll now always remember that the weird guy with the top hat and the cosmic facial hair died at the end of the Law & Order episode of Community. [Chris]

30 Rock - "Live From Studio 6H" (watch for free on Hulu)

"...because they thought two black people on the same show would make people nervous. A rule that NBC still follows today!"

Now, I wasn't the biggest fan of the initial foray of 30 Rock into a live episode.  Don't get me wrong- I LOVE a good gimmick.  Can't. Get. Enough. Gimmicks.  This is why I'm one of the only Blogulator crew that unabashedly watches competitive reality television (and not the high-rated shows either).  However, the previous live episode of 30 Rock just fell flat; it was live for the kitsch of being live without any, what do you call those?  Oh yeah, jokes.  Flash forward to the 2012 episode and it's genius.  All the gimmick, plus hilarious jokes and guest stars.  The live episode actually seemed like watching TGS. There were sketches, and funny ones at that.  I love the "flashbacks" to television past narrated by Kenneth, inserted for the purpose of "saving" TGS as a live show.  I watched several television parodies repeatedly, including the sketch of news reporters befuddled by Tina Fey's sex, and the Amos n' Andy spoof Alfie and Abner. Dr. Spaceman got some much needed play, Jon Hamm was in my two favorite sketches, and Paul proposed to Jenna after singing "Zou Bisou Bisou" from Mad Men - "A Little Kiss."  Perfection? Maybe not.  But consider my funny bone satisfied. [Jerksica]