The Best Thing I Saw on TV This Week (5/3 – 5/10)

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This was a week filled with penultimate episodes, as season finale time is right around the corner. On Sunday, motherhood was the central focus on Once Upon a Time, and that focus produced one of the strongest episodes of the season. Also on Sunday, The Good Wife took a big step toward big changes at the end of its season; Game of Thrones continued to deviate from the books in shocking ways; and Brooklyn Nine-Nine reminded us all why Jake and Amy would be perfect together (before putting another roadblock between them, of course). Monday’s Castle was a light pre-finale bit of fun with a healthy dose of Martha feelings, while Wednesday’s Nashville was one of its most emotionally devastating hours of the season. And Saturday featured an episode of Orphan Black that brought the Leda and Castor clones closer than ever, as well as an episode of Outlander that took Claire on a long quest to find Jamie.

With the stress of season finales looming on nearly every television show I watched this week, I appreciated the moments that showed the calm before the storm even more than usual. This was especially true on Once Upon a Time. With huge plot twists and major revelations paving the way for what looks to be a game-changing finale, it was nice to have a moment in the penultimate episode where Emma and Hook were allowed to breathe, share a drink and a view of the horizon, and talk through things like a real couple. I loved the scene between them at the docks because it felt like a moment of grounded realism in the middle of crazy fairytale action, which has always been one of my favorite things about them as a couple.

The strongest relationships are ones in which both parties feel secure enough in the stability of their love to be honest with one another, and it makes me so happy to see that Emma has found that in Hook. While he never pushes her or makes her feel bad for her emotions, he isn’t afraid to tell her when she’s not being her best self. That’s the sign of a great partnership—one in which both parties help the other to be better. Hook knew Emma was hurting herself by continuing to shut out her parents, and his gentle but pointed advice helped her make the decision to finally move beyond her anger and arrive at a place of healing with the family she loves. That kind of support is wonderful to watch, and it was a nice reminder—before the insanity I’m sure will come with this finale—that Hook and Emma’s relationship has helped both of them grow into the best versions of themselves, which is the basis of True Love on Once Upon a Time.

What was the best thing you saw on TV this week?

TV Time: Castle 7.22

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I’d like to say a quick thank-you to the lovely and talented Heather for covering this week’s Castle post for me once again!

Source: abc.com

Source: abc.com

Title Dead From New York

Two Sentence Summary When the creator of a show very similar to Saturday Night Live is murdered, Castle and Beckett wind up on set and inadvertently upstage a parody of their partnership. Meanwhile, Martha worries about her new show debuting in a technological world that was very different than the one she last performed in.

Favorite Line “What have you always told me? No one will give you anything in this life. You must earn it. And look at you: almost 20 years later, and you’re back on Broadway. You have earned this.” (Castle)

My Thoughts “Dead From New York” felt like a midseason episode to me. That’s not to say it was a bad episode; it made me laugh at more than one point in time, and everything related to Martha was fantastic. But it didn’t feel like an episode that should be leading into a season finale. I often complain about penultimate episodes largely being used by shows as piece-moving episodes that only seem to exist to set things up for a season finale. Castle bucked that trend last year with the incredible “Veritas.” This episode, however, didn’t move any pieces around for the finale, nor did it have the emotional weight and sense of closure offered by last year’s penultimate episode.

I recognize that with Bracken and 3XK in jail and the mystery of Castle’s disappearance solved, there simply aren’t a lot of pieces to move into place for next week’s finale. The writers on this show had the unenviable task of writing a finale when the next season is not guaranteed and, at the time of writing, contracts had yet to be re-signed. They needed to craft something that could provide a serialized element for next season but could also function on its own if necessary. Because of that, maybe it’s best that they opted for a stand-alone episode leading into the finale, and it’s just my worries that always pop up during cancellation season that are getting to me. I think I just wanted more of an indication of what the finale and the show’s future might hold, but that’s about my personal preferences, not necessarily what works best for the show.

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TV Time: Once Upon a Time 4.20

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Source: spoilertv.com

Source: spoilertv.com

Title Mother

Two-Sentence Summary When Emma and Regina return to Storybrooke with Lily and Zelena (and Robin and Roland), Regina makes a decision to team up with the Author to finally get him to write her a happy ending, but she first needs to get blood filled with the savior’s darkness to activate the magical ink. In flashbacks, we see another attempt by Regina to control how her story ends after Cora returns to the Enchanted Forest with plans to help her find love.

Favorite Lines
Zelena: Another woman defining her happiness relative to the love of a man—sad, really.
Regina: Robin isn’t my happy ending. My happy ending is finally feeling at home in the world. Robin’s just a part of that world.

My Thoughts One of my favorite things about Once Upon a Time is that it’s a story primarily about women. It’s a show where the women are heroes, villains, rulers, and saviors. And it’s also a show where almost all of these fierce, flawed, interesting women are also mothers. On so many shows, motherhood seems to render characters less interesting than they were before. On Once Upon a Time, the opposite is true. Motherhood adds even more layers, nuances, strengths, and weaknesses to these female characters. As such, it seems fitting that an episode entitled “Mother” would be one of the most satisfying episodes of the season (and perhaps the series) in terms of the growth and depth shown by Once Upon a Time’s impressive variety of female characters.

It’s also fitting that this episode was written by Jane Espenson, whose ability to weave a cohesive theme through multiple storylines has made her one of my personal favorite Once Upon a Time writers. “Mother” benefitted strongly from Espenson’s sense of thematic cohesion. Not only did each storyline (except Rumplestiltskin’s) deal with the relationships between mothers and daughters, they also all explored the idea that happy endings can be achieved by choosing to be happy with what you have and letting go of anger and resentment. As such, this episode gave me exactly what I’d been hoping to see since this “Operation Mongoose” storyline began: the realization that you don’t need an Author to write your happy ending for you; you have the power to create your own happiness. A “happy ending” isn’t a “perfect ending.” It’s simply a decision to let yourself be happy instead of focusing on emotions that make you feel miserable and dark. Emma, Regina, and Lily spent so long blocking their own paths to happiness by letting themselves believe they were destined to be unhappy. And in this episode, all three women took huge strides toward their own happy endings by letting love fill their hearts instead of hopelessness. It takes real maturity to move beyond wanting to hurt those who hurt you, and all three women grew up in a big way in “Mother.”

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Grading the Season Finales 2015: Broadchurch

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Today, Leah is back with a review of the season finale of Broadchurch.

Title Episode 8

Written By Chris Chibnall

What Happens? The episode opens with the shocking revelation that the jury in Joe’s trial has returned with a “not guilty” verdict, sending everyone in the courtroom into despair. Beth storms out in tears, and the judge wraps the case up, dismissing the jury. As soon as the court adjourns, Alec arrests Claire in connection with the Sandbrook murders and hands her off to his ex-wife Tess, while he goes to tell Ellie to harness her anger towards another goal: “I need someone as angry as me right now because we are going to close the case on Claire and Lee Ashworth.” The game, as they say, is on.

Alec sets a trap for Lee that pays off when he catches him in the act of searching for the pendant, so Alec arrests him. As they question Claire and Lee, Ellie comes up big with the discovery of new evidence, which shows that Lee replaced the floorboards in one of the Ashworths’ rooms around the time Lisa and Pippa went missing. This is the final pressure point they needed, and Lee and Claire confess, shown to the audience as a series of flashbacks explaining what exactly happened that night. We learn that Ricky killed Lisa after discovering her having sex with Lee, and he then pressured Lee and Claire into not going to the police by saying he would blame Lee for it. Since Lee’s DNA was all over Lisa from having sex moments earlier, it was likely Ricky would be believed. Unfortunately, Pippa heard part of the conflict, and at Ricky’s urging, Claire gives Pippa some of the drugged whisky to calm her down and put her to sleep until they figure out what to do. Once Ricky is gone to get the van to transport Lisa’s body, Lee realizes that Pippa thinks he killed Lisa and sees no way out of the situation, so he smothers the sleeping Pippa with a pillow. They dispose of the bodies and Claire threatens Ricky with his flask, which she has buried somewhere, and all three have been in a stalemate of mutual wrongdoing ever since. After hearing Lee and Claire’s confessions, Alec and Ellie bring Ricky in for questioning and then arrest him, and Alec is finally able to close the case.

After Joe is released from custody at the courthouse, he goes to the church to ask Paul for help. Paul knows Joe can’t stay in town, so he comes up with a plan and sets it into motion. Mark and Nigel physically carry Joe out of the church into Nigel’s van and take Joe to the hut on the cliff where Danny was killed. Waiting for him in the hut is Beth and Ellie, and Nigel leaves the four of them to have their moment. After Beth and Ellie say what they need to say to Joe, the three of them walk Joe outside and—with many of the characters we know looking on—put him into a taxi to send him away from the town for good. The people of Broadchurch created their own justice by exiling him.

Ellie and Alec say their goodbyes and seal it with a handshake, as Alec will be going back to live closer to his daughter now that the cases are over. Ellie goes to get Tom and meet up with Beth, Mark, Chloe, and baby Lizzie for the beginning of the reclamation of the beach and to continue to mend hearts with the two families. In the final scene, Alec goes to get in his taxi but pauses and looks around as the driver asks “Where to then, sir?” Perhaps he’s not done with Broadchurch after all. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Game-Changing Moment This episode felt like it wrapped up pretty much everything this show has been focused on for the past two seasons, so while I feel like there were some impactful moments in this episode, I do not see one single moment as having a game-changing impact on Season Three, other than perhaps Joe’s “not guilty” verdict. However, I recently read an interview done with Chris Chibnall (writer and creator) who said there will be no Joe in Season Three, so unless something changes, I believe we will not be dealing with that storyline more than its potential continuing affects on Ellie’s personal life.

The moment I felt had the most impact in this episode was the meeting at the hut where Beth, Ellie, and Mark had a chance to confront Joe. That meeting allowed Beth and Ellie to be able to have that confrontation with Joe and get those emotions out directly at him instead of lashing out at others or bottling it up. It was so important because it likely gave them a little bit of closure knowing they’ve had that chance to face Joe. The subsequent exile of Joe by the town gave both the characters and the audience a small sense of justice that was denied from everyone with the trial’s verdict, and it brought a sense of resolution to the story we have followed from the show’s beginning.

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TV Time: Castle 7.21

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Heather is back to share her thoughts with us on the latest episode of Castle!

Title In Plane Sight

Two-Sentence Summary When an air marshal goes missing and is later found dead on a flight, Castle is called to solve the case with the help of Beckett on the ground. With the help of Alexis, Castle pieces together the story and brings the killer to justice before they land in London.

Favorite Line “Air, by nature, should not be bumpy.” (Castle)

My Thoughts Now that the mystery of Castle’s disappearance is seemingly resolved, this week’s episode tried something new and gave us an investigation that took place almost entirely at 39,000 feet. This allowed Castle to play lead investigator with Alexis and the flight attendants assisting in the air, as Beckett and her team helped from New York. It allowed the show to play with a new dynamic and allowed Nathan Fillion proved he was up to the challenge of leading a case-driven episode.

We’ve seen more of Fillion’s range as an actor this season than we have in past seasons. The mystery of Castle’s disappearance and the return of 3XK gave him a chance to show his skills as a dramatic actor, while this week gave us a glimpse of what this show could be with Castle alone as its central focus. It was an interesting switch to see Castle fully in control of the case. Even when he was a P.I., we saw the case through Beckett’s (and the NYPD’s) perspective, with Castle providing some needed insights. Here, he was in control of developing the theories, finding evidence to be processed, and taking on his first solo interrogation. While I’m not sure about his authority to question suspects, I thought Castle was absolutely in his element.

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TV Time: Once Upon a Time 4.19

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Title Lily

Two-Sentence Summary When Emma discovers that Maleficent’s daughter is the same Lily she pushed away when she was a teenager, she embarks with Regina on a road trip to find her before they go to New York City to rescue Robin from Zelena. Along the way, surprises are around every corner—from Lily’s knowledge of her true identity to Robin’s rationale for not being able to leave Zelena behind.

Favorite Line “If you pull that trigger, you’ll be the one who destroyed your life this time.” (Regina, to Emma)

My Thoughts Sometimes an episode of a television show comes along that gives you everything you wanted as a fan. That was exactly what happened with “Lily.” The past couple of episodes of Once Upon a Time have felt bleak and sometimes frustrating, and I was growing tired of the characters believing that outside forces control our actions and decides our goodness or evil or happy endings for us. And then this episode came along with its brief but lovely doses of hope and warmth, reminding me that this show has always been about finding good moments amid hard times. Even more than that, though, I was so impressed with the way writers Andrew Chambliss and Dana Horgan managed to take an episode about a pair of girls fated to be connected and use it to tell a story about the power of choice.

“Lily” was an episode about free will. And the strong undercurrent of hope in this episode came from the way so many characters in it chose to be better than their darkness and help people. This was the first episode in a long time where it felt like all (or almost all) of the characters were actively working to make good choices instead of just accepting darkness, and that made for my favorite episode of the show in quite some time.

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The Best Thing I Saw on TV This Week (4/19 – 4/26)

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This was a very dramatic week in the world of television. On Sunday, Once Upon a Time gave us the shocking backstory of Cruella de Vil and pushed Emma closer to darkness than ever before. Also on Sunday, big changes happened for a variety of characters on Game of Thrones, including Arya, Jamie, and Jon. Monday’s episode of Castle revisited Castle’s missing two months and seemed to finally answer the question of why he had to miss his wedding. Wednesday featured an episode of Nashville that broke everyone’s heart by taking away Deacon’s immediate hope of a new liver and taking another step toward the discovery that Juliette is suffering from postpartum depression. That same night also gave us the season finale of The Americans, which was everything the finale of an excellent season should be. Finally, Saturday’s Orphan Black spent more time developing the story of the Castor clones, and Outlander brought Jamie and Claire home to Lallybroch.

In general, this was a week of heavy, depressing television, and I don’t even watch Grey’s Anatomy anymore. (My condolences to those of you who do.) Such is the life of a TV drama fan in the weeks leading up to season finale time, so I’ve learned to treasure small moments of happiness on the dramas I watch when they happen at this time of year. Therefore, my favorite moment on TV this week is actually a pair of moments from two different dramas that offered small moments of joy in the middle of heavy episodes.

The first of these moments happened on Saturday’s excellent second episode of Orphan Black‘s third season. During the very tense episode, I was thankful for the brief scene of domestic joy we were given between Cal, Sarah, and Kira. Watching the three of them play hockey together in the home Cal hoped to share with them was lovely, and it helped counteract the sadness to come, as Sarah had to let Kira go far away with Cal as she went deeper into Helena’s disappearance. Things might be difficult for that family unit right now, but there is still the memory of that happy hockey game (and that fantastic kiss) to hold onto for characters and fans alike.

The second moment also aired on Saturday. This week on Outlander, there were many flashbacks to the horrors both Jamie and Jenny suffered at the hands of Black Jack, and the episode ended with an anxiety-inducing cliffhanger. However, throughout the hour, there were moments of such sincere love and adorable happiness that it made the heavy parts much easier to handle. This was especially true of the episode’s penultimate scene. To hear both Jamie and Claire finally tell each other “I love you” was beautiful. However, the moment I liked even more was when Jamie was describing Claire’s “round arse” and “rock-solid head.” There was something so comfortable, happy, and realistically sexy in their body language during that part of the conversation that I couldn’t help but smile. It felt like a real moment of playfulness between a husband and wife, and that made the professions of love that came after feel even sweeter.

What was the best thing you saw on TV this week?

Grading the Season Finales 2015: The Americans

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I want to take a moment to thank all of you who’ve joined us here to talk about what’s been one of the best seasons of dramatic television I’ve watched in a long time. It was a true joy to write about The Americans every week, and so much of that joy came from sharing my enthusiasm for this show with other fans who love it as much as I do.

The Americans finale

Title March 8, 1983 (3.13)

Written By Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg

What Happens? When Elizabeth and Paige head to West Germany to meet Elizabeth’s dying mother, Philip stays behind and continues to deal with the fallout from what happened to Annelise (finally telling Yousaf, “I feel like shit all the time”) and Martha. After revealing his real face (and hair!) to Martha, he leaves her alone to deal with this new information, and he attempts to shutdown the FBI inquiry once and for all by planting the recorder in the apartment of Gene, the IT guy in charge of the mail robot. In order to cover up all of his loose ends, Philip kills Gene in a way that makes it look like he hung himself.

Clearly facing a crisis of conscience, Philip only struggles more after talking to Gabriel, who isn’t happy that he arranged Elizabeth and Paige’s trip without telling his superiors. Gabriel knows Philip is falling apart and commands him to “Grow up.” With seemingly nowhere to turn, Philip sits in on an est seminar about sexuality, where he runs into Sandra Beeman. She suggests that they start sharing their most honest thoughts with each other as a kind of exercise, which Philip says he’ll consider.

Honesty is also developing between Nina and Anton, as she reveals to him that she can’t keep trying to buy her freedom, which is what she was doing by getting close to him. Anton then tells her she can gain power over her captors by denying herself the things they offer her. Nina’s decision to try to find power in her situation will come in handy now that Stan discovered that—despite outing Zinaida as a Russian spy—he can’t secure her freedom. He can, however, work to turn Oleg, which becomes his latest assignment.

While all of this is happening in America, Paige finally meets her grandmother in West Germany. Instead of making her feel more at ease with the truth about her family, however, this meeting only causes Paige more distress, as she wonders how Elizabeth’s mother could send her away and if that could ever happen to her. Paige continues to be unnerved even after arriving home, telling her mother that she doesn’t know if she can keep lying to everyone. Elizabeth tries to comfort her by telling her everyone lies, and what’s important is they’re telling each other the truth now.

After Paige and Elizabeth come home to Philip, he begins to open up to Elizabeth about his confusion and moral conflict, but she cuts him off to focus on Ronal Regan’s “evil empire” speech, which begins playing on the television. As the president addresses a group of evangelicals about the Soviet Union, Paige makes a phone call to another religious leader, Pastor Tim. Through her tears, she tells him the truth: Her parents are Russians.

Game-Changing Moment When a sobbing Paige picked up that phone, I knew nothing was ever going to be the same for this show and these characters. However, Paige wasn’t the only character to change the game in that final scene. The way the final minutes were cut to go back and forth between Paige opening up to Pastor Tim and Philip trying to open up to Elizabeth was masterful. For much of this season, the focus has been on the connection between mother and daughter, but, in the end, it was the traits shared by father and daughter that might prove to be the most important of all. Both Philip and Paige have grown tired of doing what they’re told when those actions contradict what they feel is right; they both have moral compasses that have grown increasingly opposed to the things they’re being asked to do, and it’s tearing them apart from the inside out. While Elizabeth has her firm belief in the cause, her husband seems to have lost his, and their daughter never had that belief to begin with. And without that anchor, father and daughter begin to say things that could endanger them both. This was a moment of two people trying to assert their agency after being told to follow orders for the greater good, but, in the world they live in, asserting agency can have tragic consequences. This is especially true for Paige, who—by sharing her parents’ secret—has either doomed her parents or her pastor, or perhaps both.

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TV Time: Castle 7.20

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Title Sleeper

Two-Sentence Summary When Castle starts having dreams about the two months he was missing, he sets off on a quest to find the truth. That quest ultimately leads him to an old prep-school acquaintance who holds the answers about his dreams, his disappearance, and the reason he had to miss his wedding day.

Favorite Line “I’ll be with him. Wherever this leads him, I promise you: I’m not going to let him go too far.” (Beckett, to Martha)

My Thoughts We learned a lot about what happened to Castle during his two-month disappearance in “Sleeper.” And yet I can’t help but feel that this was a case of too little, too late. By abandoning this mystery for the better part of the season, much of its emotional weight was lost by the time we got to “Sleeper.” And that lack of emotional resonance wasn’t helped by the episode’s rushed pacing and anticlimactic resolution. Castle has always done remarkably well with long-running story arcs, but I don’t think Castle’s disappearance will be spoken of with the same reverence among fans as the Johanna Beckett arc or the 3XK arc.

The latter arc might have played some role in this episode’s reception—at least for me. This season did such a brilliant job of handling the 3XK arc that it didn’t feel necessary to have another big, dramatic arc that wasn’t connected to 3XK at all. Beckett had Bracken; Castle had 3XK. It was a perfect balance. Throwing a new overarching story into the mix seemed to be something that should have waited until 3XK was finished. It only led to comparisons between “Sleeper” and this season’s fantastic two–parter, and, frankly, “Sleeper” didn’t stand a chance against those two episodes.

To be fair, I think “Sleeper” didn’t stand a chance for many reasons that had little to do with the actual quality of the episode. I normally try to stay away from discussions about contracts and show renewals because the speculation just stresses everyone out. However, when issues with the business side of television carry into what I’m watching onscreen, I need to talk about it. And “Sleeper” was very clearly a victim of circumstance. At the time it was written and filmed, no one was certain if there would be another season of Castle, and I suppose we still don’t know for sure. With actor contracts up in the air, it made sense for them to try to wrap up a storyline that could have gone on much longer, while still leaving some things open in case the show ever got the chance to go back to them. However, that uncertainty made for a rushed and incomplete resolution to what should have been an important story. It felt like the writers just threw a bunch of ideas at the wall and went with what stuck.

And what stuck was an incredibly strange story of espionage, terrorism, and…boyhood friendship?

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TV Time: Once Upon a Time 4.18

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Source: onceuponatime.wikia.com

Source: onceuponatime.wikia.com

Title Sympathy for the De Vil

Two-Sentence Summary When Cruella kidnaps Henry, her connection to the Author becomes something of great importance to every character, especially Emma. That connection is revealed in flashbacks, which also show how and why the Author took away her happy ending.

Favorite Line “Forgive me if I don’t take advice from a woman who held a grudge for half her life because a 10-year-old spilled a secret.” (Emma, to Regina)

My Thoughts Sometimes it’s easy and fun for me to talk about challenging episodes of television. And sometimes it’s not. “Sympathy for the De Vil” falls into the latter category, so I apologize if my thoughts are a bit scattered this week. A lot of things happened in this episode; some I adored, and some I was less than enthusiastic about. Ultimately, this was one of those episodes that will probably be more enjoyable to analyze later on than in its immediate aftermath. So much of its emotional and thematic core depends on how actions and arcs are going to play out into next week and beyond. That’s the problem with cliffhangers—they’re cool to watch but not so cool to write about without devolving into pure speculation.

“Sympathy for the De Vil” did right by its title character in so many ways. It created a backstory for a villain that was engaging and unbelievably surprising. But the episode faltered a bit when its focus shifted from Cruella back to the Charming Family drama. This season has given us new characters with great stories to tell, and it’s also tried to build up a compelling story about Emma being tempted by darkness. However, I think both didn’t need to be in the same season. There’s such deep, complex emotional drama to be mined from Emma’s potential darkness and how her parents’ betrayal of her trust plays into that, but a lot of it is getting lost in the equally deep and complex backstories of this season’s many villains. I appreciate the scope of this season (and am happy these Queens of Darkness turned out to be so wonderful), but I’m ready for the focus to narrow down a little bit as the season finale approaches.

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