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The Best Thing I Saw on TV This Week (3/9 – 3/16)

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This week in television began with the return of Once Upon a Time on Sunday, featuring memories restored, memories lost, and mysterious to be solved. Another triumphant return from hiatus came to us courtesy of Sunday’s episode of The Good Wife, and Monday featured the end of a very controversial (and confrontational) season of The Bachelor. Tuesday’s New Girl brought Nick and Jess into the realm of power couples (at least in Nick’s mind), and Brooklyn Nine-Nine allowed Boyle and Jake’s friendship to take center stage. On Wednesday’s Nashville, both Maddie and Juliette acted recklessly, which will surely have major consequences for the rest of the season. Thursday featured a Parks and Recreation episode that highlighted Ben and Leslie’s wonderful, supportive marriage; a Suits episode that raised the tension between Louis and Mike to a new level; and a Scandal episode with a cliffhanger that still has me guessing. 

Upon its return from its midseason hiatus, Once Upon a Time stepped right back into its place as the provider of some of my favorite television moments each week. While “New York City Serenade” had plenty of contenders for the best of the best, my favorite was the moment when Snow convinced Regina to put her heart back.These two mothers bonding over the loss of their children was something that I was happy to see the show address. They have such a complicated relationship, but they’re the only people who can truly understand what the other is going through without Emma and Henry.

I also loved the way Snow was written in this scene. She had the strength that I’ve always admired in her character—a quiet but ever-present strength that comes from hope and an open heart. Snow has learned from experience that closing yourself off to feeling any emotion doesn’t solve anything; vulnerability is scary, but it’s the only way true love is possible. I loved the sense of genuine but subtle bonding between these women, and I hope that this scene is a sign of things to come.

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

TV Time: Parks and Recreation 6.16

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Source: NBC.com

Source: NBC.com

Title New Slogan

Two-Sentence Summary Leslie uses a public forum over the new town slogan as a chance to practice delegating, a skill she will need if she’s going to take the job she was offered by the National Parks Service. Meanwhile, Andy discovers Duke Silver, and Tom’s search for a good location for his restaurant is nearly sabotaged by April and Donna.

Favorite Lines
Ben: We can just sit back and take it easy.
Leslie: No, we’re not going to do that. We’re going to sit forward and take it hard.

My Thoughts Parks and Recreation is a show where characters often act in extreme ways for very normal reasons. Behind every outrageous scheme or impassioned outburst is usually a motivation grounded in real, relatable emotions. The comedy on this show often comes from those over-the-top reactions, but the heart comes from the love and friendship that drives those reactions. When that ratio of comedy to heart is off, the show feels off, and that’s been the case more than a few times this season. However, when the ratio is perfect—as it was in “New Slogan”—there’s no better way to spend a half-hour of your week than in Pawnee. Because when your you’re here, than then your you’re home.

When you think about the heart that drives Parks and Rec, it all comes back to Leslie and Ben. When these two and their supportive, stable, quirky marriage take center stage in an episode, it’s almost a guarantee that I’m going to adore it. There is no healthier, more enviable marriage on television than the one between Leslie and Ben. As characters, Leslie and Ben are perfect compliments, and as actors, Amy Poehler and Adam Scott are as well.

“New Slogan” was such a strong episode for Leslie and Ben. There have been times this season when I’ve grown annoyed with Leslie’s ridiculous responses to situations in Pawnee, but this episode reminded me that even her dumbest ideas (like fraternizing with Crazy Ira and The Douche) can be made bearable when she has someone who actually tells her that her ideas aren’t always the best ones. Ben’s logic is the perfect compliment to Leslie’s often-blind enthusiasm, and I like that—even though he is clearly (and wonderfully) turned-on by her strength and ambition—he isn’t afraid to tell her when he thinks she’s gone too far.

Ben’s honesty, practicality, and supportive nature were on full display in “New Slogan,” and that was a good thing—because Leslie needed all of those things to help her work through her concerns about the National Parks Service job offer. Of course I found her binders full of questions hilarious (and wonderfully in-character), but I was initially worried about going deeper into this storyline. My concern was its realism. Why would Leslie turn down this job? What could possibly keep her from moving on to a job where she was actually appreciated like we all want her to be appreciated? Didn’t Jen Barkley’s excellent advice to “dream bigger” mean anything?

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TV Time: New Girl 3.19

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Title Fired Up

Two-Sentence Summary When Schmidt is sued, Nick represents him as his lawyer. Meanwhile, Jess struggles with the idea of having to fire Coach from his new job at her school because of budget problems.

Favorite Line “Walk with dignity, you giant toddler!” (Schmidt)

Episode M.V.P. For as much fun as I had watching the Coach/Schmidt/Nick trio of hilarity, my favorite single performer in this episode was Damon Wayans Jr. “Fired Up” was probably my favorite Coach episode to date. There was something so endearing about how much he cared for the kids he was coaching, even though he showed it in his typical “Coach” way—by yelling and name-calling and general profanity use. There was a nice balance between genuine encouragement and tough-love humor in both his relationship with the kids and with Jess. I have really been enjoying Coach and Jess’s rapport, and I thought Wayans and Zooey Deschanel worked really well together in all of their scenes in this episode. And I know it was kind of a cheap, obvious joke, but the whole “Coach Coach” wordplay was one of my favorite parts of “Fired Up.”

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TV Time: Once Upon a Time 3.12

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NYC Serenade

Title New York City Serenade

Two-Sentence Summary After getting her memories back, Emma must leave behind the life she thought was real to journey with Hook and a still-in-the-dark Henry back to Storybrooke, which has been re-created by a mysterious curse that has also wiped a year’s worth of memories from all of the town’s inhabitants. Though the residents of the town aren’t sure who brought them back there, all signs point to the Wicked Witch, who has taken over Regina’s castle in the Enchanted Forest and sent one of her flying monkeys to take some of Regina’s blood and later pose as Emma’s boyfriend in New York City.

Favorite Lines
Emma: You could be a crazy person, or a liar, or both.
Hook: I prefer dashing rapscallion…Scoundrel?
Emma: Give me one good reason not to punch you in the face.

My Thoughts After what felt at times like the longest midseason hiatus imaginable, Once Upon a Time returned last night with a new energy that has me excited for how this half of Season Three is going to play out. In a similar way to “The Heart of the Truest Believer,” “New York City Serenade” did an excellent job of highlighting what appear to be the important arcs of Season 3B: the mystery of the new curse, the Wicked Witch versus the Evil Queen, Henry and his missing memories, the quest to find out what really happened to Rumplestiltskin, and Emma’s struggle to find normalcy and happiness in her life as the savior.

The biggest theme of this episode was the idea of finding a home. Just as “The Heart of the Truest Believer” set up the Neverland arc’s major theme of belief, “New York City Serenade” raised the question of what home means for each of the major characters.

And what does home mean for a woman who’s never really had one? Yes, Emma built a home with Henry in New York, but that was a home with a false foundation. It seems that, for Emma, home is less about a place than it is about a feeling, and I think the same can be said for all of these characters. Home is where you feel safe, stable, and loved. Emma has been searching her whole life to find that, and I think this episode showed that she may never find it in any one place—because, for these characters, home is often found in another person.

This universal search for a place to call home brought characters together in fresh ways in “New York City Serenade.” Even characters we’ve seen interact many times before worked together with a new energy. Maybe some of that was due to the writing being a little brighter and lighter than it has been for quite some time. But I think a lot of the credit should go to the actors. There was a genuine sense of comfort, confidence, and understanding between all of them in this episode. Nothing felt forced, and that was important for an episode that was heavily dependent on the chemistry between certain actors to make various plot points believable.

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The Best Thing I Saw on TV This Week (3/2 – 3/9)

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This week in television started with Monday’s tense Castle episode, which moved the show’s mythology forward and showed immense character growth for Kate Beckett. Tuesday’s New Girl gave us the conclusion of Abby Day’s arc, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine featured a jealous Jake and introduced us to everyone’s favorite addicting app: Kwazy Cupcakes. On Wednesday, Nashville featured a shocking (or not so shocking) hookup and an equally shocking (or not so shocking) business proposal. Thursday’s episode of Parks and Recreation saw Leslie get some major recognition for her hard work and showed us Ron’s son for the first time. Thursday also featured the return of Suits, which tested Scottie and Harvey’s relationship already and forced Mike to confront new facts about his parents’ death.

This was a week filled with strong episodes and great performances, but no performance was greater than Stana Katic’s work in this week’s episode of Castle. Beckett’s fear, determination, and ferocity were on full display throughout the episode, and Katic made each emotion not only feel believable but palpable. In an episode filled with standout moments, her torture scene allowed her to run the gamut of emotions in such an impressive way. To know that she did all of these torture scenes herself just makes me admire Katic’s dedication even more.

TV Time: Once Upon a Time in Wonderland 1.09

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Fear not, fellow Once Upon a Time in Wonderland fans—the lovely Leah is back with her thoughts on the start of the second half of this season! 

OUAT-in-Wonderland-Nothing-to-Fear-09

Title Nothing to Fear

What Happened? Lizard finds Will’s magic bottle in the river and ends up using some of her wishes to try to gain Will’s attention and affection with devastating consequence. The Red Queen, Cyrus, and Alice team up in their efforts to find Will, but are sidetracked when unhappy constituents who want revenge kidnap the Red Queen. Meanwhile Jafar, now the ruler of the land, seeks out the dangerous Jabberwocky as a tool in finding the genie.

Favorite Lines “The throne is made when the man who sits on it is worthy. Where you sit Jafar, is nothing more than a large chair.” (The Sultan)

“I’ve tried, but word’s gotten out; working for you tends to shorten one’s life expectancy.” (The Caterpillar)

My Thoughts This was a fairly strong returning episode for Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, which was reassuring to see, as it suggests that the show will be able to keep up a high level of quality for its remaining four episodes. I feel like the show balanced each of the three different groups of characters well, cutting between them without making it feel like we were jumping all over the place and also not lingering too long on any one storyline.

We open the episode with Alice, Cyrus, and the Red Queen, who reluctantly team up together to try to find Will. I found it interesting that now that Will’s gone, Alice, who is normally the more optimistic and open-hearted of the group, plays the role of the cynic and constantly questions the Red Queen’s motivations. Cyrus, however, regards her with much more of an open mind. I don’t know if part of Alice’s mistrust is because she doesn’t remember the Red Queen’s confession of her love for Will, or if it’s merely that Alice will never completely trust the Red Queen after she was the one who Alice spent so long believing had killed Cyrus. Either way, I found the new dynamic interesting and a good way to endear us to Cyrus and give more depth to Alice. I’m really looking forward to seeing these three and Will work together over the rest of the season.

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TV Time: Parks and Recreation 6.15

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Let’s all welcome back our favorite beautiful tropical fish, Heather, who was kind enough to review this week’s episode of Parks and Recreation while I finished my latest Once Upon a Time essay!

parksandrect—the wall

Title The Wall

Two Sentence Summary Leslie encounters some problems with the Pawnee-Eagleton merger and receives an interesting job offer, while Tom finds an investor who believes in his ideas. Meanwhile, Ron volunteers to fix a floor of City Hall while his newborn son watches.

Favorite Line “You like fixing this town, Leslie, you always have. You know it’s an uphill battle, but you love the struggle. I would also add that you’ve already done a hell of a lot to make this town better, and people like this young man here will benefit from your hard work.” (Ron)

My Thoughts What a beautiful and hilarious episode. I cracked up at multiple points during the episode—not necessarily because the lines or reactions were so funny on their own, but because they were so perfect for the character. From Leslie’s response to Ron getting a fish to literally all of Ben’s reaction faces to Craig demanding that someone follow him because he was distraught, this episode used our knowledge and love of the characters to produce some genuinely funny moments, and I think that’s pretty good for a show in its sixth season.

It was also an episode of successes. We have been watching Tom bounce from idea to idea and increasingly become less satisfied with his job as a government employee. He has so much passion and energy, but it’s not always accompanied by sound business ideas. I actually really love the idea of him as a fundraiser, especially for something that he can be passionate about. My office’s goal is to raise money for a university, so I am surrounded by fundraisers and see a lot of similar qualities in him.

That being said, fundraising will never be Tom’s dream. He wants to see his business ventures succeed and to feel proud of what he’s done to make them succeed. I am thrilled to see someone recognize his passion and be willing to really invest in Tom as a person to make those dreams a reality. I wish he would recognize the value that Ben adds to business discussions a little more, but that’s partly my love for Ben speaking.

After a disappointing week trying to get people excited about the merger, Leslie received one of the biggest compliments of her career. She was told that her grant proposal was used as an example and praised for its thoroughness by the “bad boy” of the Department of the Interior, and she was offered a job with the National Parks Service. Though she ultimately decided to stay in Pawnee for now, I am so proud that it was offered to her.

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Love Is Strength: Once Upon a Time and the Truth About True Love

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Ginnifer-Goodwin-and-Josh-Dallas-Once-Upon-a-Time

True love isn’t easy, but it must be fought for. Because once you find it, it can never be replaced.

Once Upon a Time doesn’t play by the centuries-old rules of fairytale lore, and the show takes pride in that. Rumplestiltskin is also Belle’s Beast, Jack who climbs the beanstalk is actually a woman, and Snow White threatens the Evil Queen with a sword at her wedding ceremony. But perhaps the most important fairytale makeover this show has presented to audiences is the way it handles the concept of “true love.” The way true love is defined on Once Upon a Time—as an empowering force for good and something that requires effort and acceptance to achieve and maintain (and as something that doesn’t have to be romantic to be true)—should be one of the show’s enduring legacies.

The entire premise of Once Upon a Time is built around the idea of what happens after the “happily ever after.” What happened after Prince Charming woke Snow White from the queen’s sleeping curse? It turns out, a lot of things happened—even before their wedding—that tested and strengthened their love. On Once Upon a Time, true love isn’t something that is achieved and makes everything perfect in both your relationship and your life in general. True love requires teamwork. That’s what Snow and Charming are; they’re a team. They fight side-by-side for more than just their love; they fight for their kingdom. They don’t always agree, and their love isn’t a magical solution to all of their problems. But the support they give to one another is a defining part of their “true love.” Even when things are falling apart around them, they can rely on each other, knowing that the other has their back. True love doesn’t conquer all, but it gives you someone to take on life’s challenges beside you. And that’s a much more realistic story than one in which a prince and princess ride off into the sunset and never have any problems because they have true love.

The reason why Snow and Charming are able to both win so many battles and withstand so many losses is because they have someone who they know is by their side in both victory and defeat. Their true love is unconditional—it’s a love between two people who accept the other for who they really are, both the good and the bad. Charming and Snow met at a time when she was at her most cynical, and he still fell in love with her after she robbed him and hit him over the head with a rock. Even when Snow confessed her “darkened heart” to Charming in Season Two’s “Selfless, Brave, and True,” he didn’t judge her or stop loving her. Instead, he promised to help her believe in her own goodness again because that’s what true love is—it’s something that inspires both parties to be their best selves.

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Once Upon A Time in Wonderland: Where Did We Leave Off?

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Today at NGN we’re celebrating the return of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland with the return of the lovely Leah and her OUaTiW posts! 

I want to offer you all an apology for abandoning my Once Upon a Time in Wonderland recaps over the past few months. Some things in my life made it so that I was behind on watching the episodes, and then I got so behind I wasn’t able to catch up. I’m back now, though, and plan to be around for recaps through the end of this season.

To prepare for the show’s return, I thought I’d pick three plot points that I feel will have the biggest impact on the second half of Season One and discuss them!

1. The Red Queen Is Anastasia
Possibly the biggest surprise of this season thus far has been the reveal that the Anastasia who broke Will’s heart is also the Red Queen who has been working against Alice all along. It was revealed that Anastasia and Will were once happily in love, dreaming of making a life together even if they had to steal to survive. Their lives were changed when Will and Anastasia snuck into a royal ball, where Anastasia became enamored by the glamorous world of the royalty and nobles. They were both thrown out of the ball when discovered, but not before Anastasia spotted the crown jewels and had an encounter with the king, who was very curious about her. She decided to steal the jewels but was caught in the act by the king, who had a proposal for her: become his queen. She accepted, and when she was presented to the kingdom as the new queen, Will was in the crowd, betrayed and heartbroken.

As we learned at the end of the midseason finale (“Home”), Anastasia’s love for Will has been the motivation for everything she’s done during the season. She has been trying to capture Cyrus and his wishes so that she can use his power to break the laws of magic and somehow get Will back.

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TV Time: New Girl 3.18

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Title Sister III

Two-Sentence Summary Abby moving in with Schmidt causes Jess to push Nick into letting her officially move into his room, which proves to be stressful for both parties. Meanwhile, Cece tries to prove that Abby isn’t right for Schmidt, and Winston trains for his police academy fitness test.

Favorite Line “Coffee for one, a sundae for one, and your most tasteful, story-driven adult film. Preferably a period piece…Do you have anything in the Byzantine era?” (Jess)

Episode M.V.P. It’s been a while since I loved Zooey Deschanel as much as I loved her in this episode. Her exuberance in the hotel room was hilarious, while still being strangely believable. Haven’t we all felt that way after being around someone (or even just people in general) for far too long? Jess may be an extrovert, but even us extroverts need some “me time.” And of course Jess’s “me time” would include singing Judy Garland songs, crying over tiny minibar bottles, and watching period-piece porn. (The fact that she was looking for Byzantine-era adult films and not stereotypical Regency romance made it even better.) I also thoroughly enjoyed Jess’s last scenes with both Abby and Nick. Deschanel and Linda Cardellini had great chemistry together, and I will always love her comedic chemistry with Jake Johnson. The deadpan way she told him to fix his hippie feet was absolutely perfect, and I can’t get enough of Jess’s quiet interjections whenever Nick says something ridiculous (like when he was trying to tell her about the pilgrims massacring each other).

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