So we're trying something sort of new here at the good ol' blog. Every Friday or Saturday, Zozizzle and I (and yes, I changed my moniker to just 'Lea' now. Although Mind Grapes is still in my heart) will attempt a weekly recap post, where we talk about all of the television that we watched for the week. Granted, sometimes an episode that we see will be so great and so full of excitement that a short thought-synopsis won't be sufficient, and in that case, those episodes will be getting their own separate posts. But for all the other tv that we watch (let's face it, we can watch a lot of tv), these posts are for that.
Chuck 4.11 "Chuck Vs. The Balcony"
Chuck is back after the hiatus with a pretty strong episode. The episode focused less on a real mission and more on the sub-mission to get Chuck to propose to Sarah. Amusing stuff mostly because of the inclusion of Morgan, who first worked with Chuck, then Sarah, and then with Casey to try and get it done (Gosh, I remember a time when I hated Morgan. No longer. I love Morgan! Love him!). I thought the episode was sweet and funny and my heart grew 3 sizes when Casey told his proposal story to Chuck: "Forget the balcony. All you need is the girl."
And then I got a Lester story line. A LESTER STORY LINE! Mayhaps you know that I'm kind of a big Lester fan, so when he brought his prospective fiancee into his "Saskatchewan Hinjew" cavern, I felt great joy. That was only surpassed by the appearance of JEFFSTER! Never change, Jeffster. Never change.
I will admit to being a tad bit annoyed that the proposal got cut short if only b/c this show has sometimes run the risk of dragging out Chuck/Sarah issues for a little too long. I'm ready for them to finally be engaged, dammit! The storyline resulting in the capture caught me a bit off guard, just because it seems so implausible (but lol what is plausible on this show, really), buuuut the preview for next week looks amazing and so I'm definitely willing to see how it plays out. I'm just glad my Chuck is back!
American Idol 10 "Auditions #1 New York/New Jersey" & "Auditions #2 New Orleans"
Ah my love/hate relationship with American Idol continues. So everyone's freaking out because Simon is gone, eh? Meh. I only started watching this show at the very end of Simon's run, when the dude had clearly checked out and was envisioning a world with an American X-Factor where he could control
everything, and I never really found his critiques all that helpful. So I'd rather look forward to new judges (and no more Kara! PRAISE JESUS HALLELUJAH!), and so far I'm cautiously optimistic. Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez had a good first outing. Steven is sort of like the new Paula, wacky and out there and making up phrases, but he also was surprisingly compassionate and let people down easy, while still being tough. He also enjoys singing along to everything, which could get annoying, but eh, it's Steven Tyler, you let the man sing. So far he was definitely the bright spot of the episodes, but J.Lo did a pretty good job as well. She may have had trouble saying no, but she actually gave some strong critiques as well as seemed to really care about the contestants and what she was doing. The real test for both Steven and Jennifer will definitely be the live shows. That's where these guys are really going to sink or swim, but as of right now, I'm encouraged. And Randy Jackson was just Randy Jackson. I've always had a soft spot for Randy, so as long as he keeps wearing cardigans and serving out "yo dawgs", I'm good.
Oh, the actual contestants? All I remember is that there were a shit-ton of teenage girls whose voices all sounded the exact same to me, which doesn't really bode well (are they looking for a female pop-singer?). A few teenage boys got through, who I really only remember for their sob stories (Wheelchairs! Twins in Harlem! Picked on because of being a ginger!) than anything else. A fat Justin Bieber. And then of course there was Yoshi-Pop! We'll leave it at that.
Modern Family 2.13 "Caught In the Act"
I thought this was a pretty solid episode, with quite a few laugh-out-loud moments for me. My watching of Modern Family has started fairly recently, when I went through the first season in about a month and have been watching season 2 ever since. I find this show extremely enjoyable and one that is always entertaining, even in it's "worst" episodes. I've kind of always seen it as the much less dysfunctional version of Arrested Development. But while that show had me in stitches practically the entire episode, Modern Family doesn't always get guffaws from me, but it's always really pleasant to watch. It makes me smile and it makes me happy, and the 3 different families give you at least one thing to grasp hold of every episode. One of them doesn't carry the whole season, but instead all are given good story lines throughout (my favorite story lines however, are the ones that bring all the families together).
The main plot of this one with the kids walking in on Phil and Claire in bed was pretty good, mostly for the kid's reactions (I love Luke and the actor who plays him. His one-liners are a riot: "I don't know what they were doing, but it looked like Dad was winning.") and for Phil being Phil: "Excuse me for thinking your zesty performance deserved some praise."
The mixup with Gloria's email and her thinking Claire was angry about something other than what she was was a liiiiitle too sitcom cliche for me, but the pay off - with Gloria propositioning them to "taste her cupcakes" and Phil almost passing out - was hysterical.
The Cam/Mitch story line felt a little like an afterthought, but I was dying as Cam tried to think of the correct actress who owned the rug as he was freaking out (also, is Lilly the most well-behaved child ever?).
The Office 7.12 "Ultimatum"
Another pretty good episode after a hiatus. I think, along with it seems like many of the viewing public, that this season of The Office is the worst of it's 7 year run. I know I'll always love it no matter what and will keep watching until it ends, but some of the story lines this year have seemed a bit stale and repetitive (and in fact, I worry about that a bit with the Michael/Holly story line. Those two need to get together in the end, yet I thought a lot of to-do was made about them this episode, where ultimately nothing really happened. Holly's taking a break now? That's it? Boo!). However, I really enjoyed this episode, because there were quite a few great lines and moments which had me rolling. First, Erin has kind of become a caricature, but I don't care, she is hysterical. I love her helping Michael so readily with his video and his "sad box" and "happy box" (with the gummi bears in the sad and the gummi worms in the happy, obviously). And her hatred of Holly is never not funny. Also: "My goal was to learn a new word every single day. And I must say that it is going
immensely."
The resolution story line is one that would be incredibly stupid in real life, but it led to some awesome gags, especially Kevin being forced to eat broccoli as he struggles and then spitting it out everywhere. And of course, Andy roller skating to DMB and then dancing to a strobe light, things that are never not good. Greatest line of the episode however was uttered by the legendary Creed, "F*** YOU! F*** YOU!" in response to Erin doing the perfect cartwheel, which Creed only dreamed a possibility.
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