Tag Archives: television

TV Time: Teen Wolf 3.07

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What Happened? While visiting his mom at the hospital, Scott realizes that healers are the next on the Darach’s list of sacrificial groups, which is confirmed the next day when Deaton calls to tell Scott that he’s going to be taken. While Scott races to find Deaton before it’s too late, Isaac and Boyd come to Derek with a plan to defend him from the Alpha Pack. Their plan fails, and the Alpha Twins and Kali force Boyd onto Derek’s claws, killing him.

Favorite Quotes
“You know, I’ve read online somewhere that sometimes human contact can help with pain.” (Scott)

“You were on watch last.”
“What are you talking about, you were on watch last.”
“You were on watch last.”
“I might’ve been on watch last.” (Scott and Isaac)

“Sweetheart, my last boyfriend was a homicidal lizard. I think I can handle a werewolf.” (Lydia)

“Why would I dream about you going through my stuff?”
“I don’t know that, Danny. Okay? It’s your dream; take responsibility for it. Shut up and go back to sleep.” (Danny and Stiles)

“Your eyes were red…bright red.”
“How is that possible?”
“It’s rare. It’s something that doesn’t happen within a hundred years, but every once in a while, a Beta can become an Alpha without having to steal or take that power. They call it a true Alpha. It’s one who rises purely on the strength of their character; by virtue, by sheer force of will.”
“You knew this would happen.”
“I believed. From the moment I knew you were bitten, I believed.” (Deaton and Scott)

My Thoughts I am the type of person who, in general, likes to focus on the positive things about the shows I love. While I know they’re flawed, and I acknowledge and think about those flaws, I prefer to focus on what I love about them rather than all the ways in which they make mistakes or are problematic. So while I’m going to start off with a few things that talk about how some of the issues I had with this week’s Teen Wolf, I will keep most of the focus on my favorite and most thought-provoking parts of the episode.

Dear Teen Wolf: You’ve been very good to us viewers and, generally, I think you do things well. But this season you have now killed off two main characters that are not the most well-represented in media—a woman and a person of color. And this show doesn’t have a lot of those characters to begin with. I’m not saying that you’re necessarily consciously doing this, but it is problematic.

I’m wondering why they decided to kill Boyd in the episode right after the one that actually began to give him more backstory. We barely knew anything about Boyd at all, so why bring up all those questions about him and his sister if we’re not going to see any more about it? Perhaps we’ll learn more later, through flashbacks or through relatives, but for now it looks like our questions will have to wait.

I’m hoping that there’s a plan for at least one of our two Beta wolves to somehow come back to life on the show, since, as we’ve seen with Peter, on this show once you’re dead you’re not necessarily completely dead!

Now, on a more positive note, let’s talk about Melissa McCall. We all wish we could be as awesome as she is, am I right? In this episode, she appears to be dealing with a hospital in chaos without much help; saves Danny’s life with her knowledge and skills; figures out how the healers are being killed through examining the evidence of the marks on their bodies; and brings the sheriff into the loop on this without having to tell him about the supernatural elements. I am so happy to have her as part of the “in-the-know team” this year, and I love her character so much.

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Daily Dose of Feelings #5

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There still has yet to be a show that can effectively tug at my heartstrings on a weekly basis the way the first few seasons of Grey’s Anatomy could. Births and deaths, patients and doctors, moments of pain and moments of love—this show was able to make me cry for so many reasons and for so many characters. And while every couple had (and I’m sure still has even though I stopped watching a long time ago) plenty of poignant moments, Meredith and Derek were the center of so much of what made this show incredible, including its heartwarming and heartbreaking moments.

The scene where Derek comes to visit Meredith after she almost dies in an explosion at the end of Season Two’s “As We Know It,” is the perfect mixture of heartwarming and heartbreaking. The longing in this scene is so palpable that it makes my chest ache even all these years later.

The tension is built so perfectly throughout this scene, with Derek coming to see Meredith even though he’s married to Addison, and then with Meredith telling him that she couldn’t remember their last kiss—her loneliness written across her face like the cut on her forehead. But the tears don’t start for me until Derek describes that last kiss for Meredith. I remember sobbing when this scene first aired, thinking about how romantic it was that he remembered every little detail of that final moment of happiness. Patrick Dempsey’s delivery of that speech is perfect; you can feel every emotion as it courses through Derek—happiness, love, regret, and longing. HIs little smiles throughout the scene still kill me in the best possible way.

Some television moments make you cry because of how badly you want two characters to find happiness, and this will always be one of those moments for me. The electricity in the air between Dempsey and Ellen Pompeo is almost unbearable; this is such a simple scene, but the two of them put so much emotion into it that it’s impossible not to feel a desire to see these two people find love with one another again.

Grey’s Anatomy is filled with big moments designed to inflict maximum damage on your tear ducts. But where the show really excelled in its early seasons was in small moments of genuinely palpable emotion. Meredith and Derek have always been the emotional core of this show, and that’s true because of the quiet power of scenes like this one.

Five Reasons the Emmys are the Worst

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Okay…The title of this post may be a little hyperbolic, but let’s call a spade a spade: The 2013 Emmy nominations (which were announced yesterday) weren’t exactly exciting. In fact, they left many (myself included) disappointed. I know I shouldn’t get my hopes up for the majority of my favorite shows and actors getting nominations, but that should be part of the fun of nomination day. But I guess “fun” and “nomination day” are two words that only go together for the Critics’ Choice Television Awards.

Over at Media Through a Mom’s Eyes, you’ll find some great reactions and analysis of the Emmy nominees, especially in the dramatic categories. Here, I just want to point out five reasons I’m convinced the Emmys are out-of-touch with what’s actually going on in the world of television.

1. I don’t love you, and I don’t like you. Once again, Parks and Recreation was left out of the running for Best Comedy, with only Amy Poehler securing a nomination in a category which I’m sure she’ll be overlooked in once again. I’ve grown sadly jaded about Parks and Rec’s chances of ever getting nominated again, but I really thought they stood a chance this season. While it wasn’t the strongest season overall, it had two of its most compelling episodes ever with “Halloween Surprise” and “Ben and Leslie.” To see such a heartfelt, well-acted, genuinely funny television show go without any recognition (beyond its fabulous leading lady) continues to break my heart and make me wonder what exactly voters are looking for. If you don’t love Parks and Rec, I don’t think you’re the kind of person I want to know—or the kind of awards show I want to watch.

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Daily Dose of Feelings #4

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The summer before my senior year of college, I binge-watched all of Sex and the City. And while I discovered that I am definitely a Charlotte, Samantha was by far my favorite character. And never was she more brilliant than during her breast-cancer arc. That story provided some of the most heartfelt, honest, and realistic moments on a show that prided itself on its candor and its ability to tug at your heartstrings while it made you laugh.

My heartstrings have never been tugged harder while watching Sex and the City than when Samantha decided to shave her head after she started losing her hair. The powerful moment of such a strong character staring at her reflection, razor in hand, trying to accept the fact that she was now going to have to look like a sick person was emotional enough on its own.

And then Smith walked in.

Everyone has their favorite Sex and the City man, and Smith will always be mine. This scene solidified my love for him because he didn’t just talk the talk; when he said he wanted to be there for the woman he loves, he meant it. The grand gesture of shaving his head to try in some small way to relate to her better is beautiful, but what moves me the most is how matter-of-fact that gesture feels. The whole scene has this fantastic aura of reality—they feel like a real couple talking about the realities of cancer rather than actors reading clichéd lines about the illness.

Love isn’t always pretty and easy—life isn’t always pretty and easy. And I loved this scene for showing that, while both of those things may be true, the important thing is having someone who won’t run away—even when it’s scary and even if life freaks us out sometimes.

Daily Dose of Feelings #3

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When I think of television moments that make me cry from pure joy, there’s nothing better than Jim and Pam discovering that they’re going to be parents at the end of the “Company Picnic” episode of The Office. What begins as a heartfelt moment of reflection from Michael Scott about his relationship with Holly perfectly transitions into a moment of complete bliss from the couple Michael was obviously thinking of and hoping to emulate.

The Office: Company Picnic.

This scene was the first one that made me fear breaking the rewind button on my DVR—and it’s all because of John Krasinski’s face. The decision to use no sound in the moments when they first found out about Pam’s pregnancy was genius. It forced us to focus on their reactions, and Krasinski is the king of reaction shots. The complete surprise on his face was adorable, but the tears started flowing for me when he hugged Pam. I love how real it still feels after so many re-watches; when he holds her, it’s such a genuinely beautiful moment. It feels like you’re watching a private moment between these two characters, and that only adds to the emotional power of the scene.

And once Jim calls Dwight back, I lose it every time. The little crack in his voice, the tears in his eyes, and the gloriously shocked look on his face when he finally faces the camera say it all. There’s no need to directly say what’s going on in the scene; we can see it, and, more importantly, we can feel it. There’s no better example of the “show, don’t tell” mantra of great storytelling.

Daily Dose of Feelings #2

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Television comedies make me cry just as often as (if not more often than) dramas. There’s something uniquely moving about seeing characters so often associated with silliness and laughter presented in emotionally vulnerable states, both happy and sad. In my opinion, there’s no better example of this than the episode of Friends featuring Chandler’s speech to the woman he and Monica were hoping would choose them as adoptive parents for her baby (or babies, as it turned out).

I remember watching this scene at my grandparents’ house when it first aired and trying not to let anyone see me tearing up. It was one of the first times I remember watching a television moment and thinking I want a husband like that. The sincerity in Matthew Perry’s performance absolutely floors me to this day.

You can keep your big Ross and Rachel kisses; to me, Chandler telling Erica, “My wife…She’s a mother without a baby,” will always be the most romantic moment Friends ever gave us. It’s such an honest, real depiction of a husband supporting his wife through something that affects so many married couples.

To see sarcastic Chandler Bing stripped of all pretenses and telling a relative stranger through tears how much it kills him to not be able to give his wife a baby is such a great example of a character’s journey adding to the emotional power of a scene. We watched Chandler grow up, become a husband, and, finally, in this moment, become a father-to-be. And we watched it happen organically, realistically, and—in this scene especially—emotionally. When Chandler and Monica celebrate his happy news, it feels truly earned.

Like yesterday’s Sawyer and Juliet vending machine reunion, this is a scene with emotional staying power. Years later, it still puts a lump in my throat and makes me hope for a husband who loves me like Chandler loves Monica.

“God bless you, Chandler Bing!”

Daily Dose of Feelings #1

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The idea for this feature (and the idea for yesterday’s discussion of the emotional power of television) came from a recent YouTube excursion to rewatch some scenes from the series finale of Lost. One thing led to another, and I ended up sitting on my couch, crying my eyes out over one scene in particular—a scene that I’ve continued to watch for the last two weeks on a near-constant repetitious loop.

Fifty (or more) viewings later over the course of three years, the reunion between Sawyer and Juliet at the hospital vending machine still hits me the same way it did that May night when I saw it for the first time.

Even if you’ve never watched Lost, even if you have no idea who these characters are or what they mean to each other, I dare you to watch this video and remain unmoved. I’ve watched a lot of television in my almost-25 years on this Earth, and this is by far the most beautiful scene I’ve ever watched.

The background is relatively simple (for Lost at least): Sawyer and Juliet were happy and in love, and he was ready to propose before she was violently torn from his grasp by electromagnetic forces on the island, eventually dying in his arms. In this scene, both of them are wandering around a kind of “spiritual waiting room” in which they have no memory of their past life until they meet their “constant,” the person who wakes them up to the reality of their lives (and deaths). In this case, Sawyer and Juliet are each other’s constant—each other’s soulmate.

There are no words for how much this scene still fills me with a sense of pure relief and happiness. It truly feels like you’re watching two people with so much history of joy and pain finding each other after a lifetime apart. The chemistry between Josh Holloway and Elizabeth Mitchell in this scene is the standard by which I judge all other actors’ chemistry because they make me feel every intense emotion as it sweeps through them—from initial attraction to the pain of horrific memories to the speechless joy of holding one another again.

Holloway and Mitchell were truly breathtaking in this moment. I love how she falters a little when she remembers falling to her death, but what I love most is that this time he’s there to keep her from falling—and he’s not letting the chance to hold her slip through his fingers ever again. When he says “I got you, baby,” as his voice cracks, I feel like someone is stepping on my chest while simultaneously making my heart grow 15 sizes. There’s something so gorgeously intimate about it, so real. And when Juliet cries and laughs at the same time you can feel her relief like it’s your own—a relief mirrored in Sawyer’s smile, a smile so bright and so hopeful it’s like nothing we’ve seen him express before.

And don’t even get me started on the kiss. Her giddy anticipation. His passionate intensity. The most mature, honest, and beautiful love story on Lost got its happy ending—all to the sounds of Michael Giacchino’s perfect score.

In the immortal words of Juliet, “It worked.” The goal of this reunion was to remind us just how epic this love story had become and just how good these two actors were together—while making us cry buckets of tears. I’d say it worked perfectly.

The Best Thing I Saw on TV This Week (7/7 – 7/14)

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This week, some entertaining TV shows hit big turning points, and one hilarious new show made its mark on the summer TV landscape.

On The Bachelorette, Desiree basically admitted that she’s in love with Brooks, which should make the final batch of episodes interesting as her decision seems made already, but we all know there’s at least one more dramatic turn coming up before the last rose is given out. So You Think You Can Dance said goodbye to one contestant due to injury and another due to an elimination featuring a strong (but not quite strong enough) group of female dancers. And everyone’s favorite dysfunctional family on The Real Housewives of New Jersey provided a great cliffhanger for this week in television, as a family retreat turned violent.

None of these TV moments could compare to my favorite from this week: the premiere of Hollywood Game Night on NBC. The premise is simple but fantastic: funny celebrities + alcohol + ridiculous games. The result was something that I will be glued to every Thursday night at 10 for the rest of the summer. Where else can you see Lisa Kudrow and Matthew Perry trying to guess the salty snack in a photograph or Martin Short trying to put photos of Johnny Depp in chronological order? This is the perfect summer entertainment—fun, easy to watch, and thoroughly enjoyable.

Watch this clip and tell me you don’t want to be a part of this kind of game night:

 

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

It’s Okay to Cry: The Emotional Power of Television

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“It’s just a TV show.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told that in my life—usually while I’m crying into my sweatshirt sleeve or just letting the tears fall to the point where they end up going all the way down my neck. (I often judge the emotional resonance of something by its ability to produce these “neck tears.”)

TV shows make me cry often and they make me cry hard, but I don’t think that’s a phenomenon reserved for me alone. Even those skeptics who’d roll their eyes at my sobbing over the same episode of Alias I’ve seen 50 times (“The Telling” for anyone wondering) have almost certainly found themselves choked up over one television moment or another.

Ned Stark. Charlie Pace. Dr. Mark Green. Mrs. Landingham. Omar Little. The mere mention of those names is enough to put a lump in the throat of even the most cynical TV viewer. I don’t know a person who hasn’t been moved to tears at least once in their lives over “just a TV show.”

What is it about television that produces such a strong emotional response from its audience? Why is it that no book or film—not even The Fault in Our Stars or Toy Story 3—has been able to move me as strongly as the Boy Meets World series finale continues to move me to this day?

Television is a personal medium, an intimate medium. We let its characters into our lives and our homes for weeks that often turn into years. Books are finished within a few days (or weeks/months if it’s one of the A Song of Ice and Fire books); films end after a few hours. But television shows keep coming back. Because of this, we watch characters develop with a complexity no other medium can replicate. Those characters become a part of our lives, a part of our routines, a part of our families.

When I think of what makes television so emotionally resonant, it always comes back to the characters and the amount of time we get to spend with them. We are able to watch them grow, and we’re able to grow with them. Their journeys often inspire our own. We all have television characters we “met” at just the right time in our lives to feel like their path mirrored our own. Their successes feel like our successes, and their struggles feel painfully relatable.

Sometimes, an entire show mirrors an arc in our lives. When Alias ended, I was about to graduate from high school, and I began watching the show when I was 13. So when the final scene concluded, I cried not because of what had happened to Sydney Bristow but because the show that had been with me through the entirety of my high school years ended—just like those high school years were about to end. The Lost series finale aired the day after I graduated from college. Just as Jack Shephard had to accept that one part of his life was over and another one needed to begin, I also had to accept the end of my life as I knew it and the start of something unknown. In both of those cases, I was so thankful for the kind of catharsis only television can provide—a way to work through my emotions with characters I’d come to love over the course of many years.

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TV Time: Teen Wolf 3.06

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Many thanks to Leah for once again sharing her thoughts on Teen Wolf with all of us!

As a quick heads-up before I start: As you probably know if you watched Teen Wolf this week, this episode dealt with heavy, potentially triggering subject matter. My review will discuss some of this, as I will talk about the suicide attempts that were made by each of the characters in this episode, though I will focus on the new information we learned about them through their hallucinations more than recounting the actions of the direct attempts themselves. Please take care of yourself and judge if discussions of the events in this episode will be triggering and/or emotionally distressing to you before reading.

Title Motel California

What Happened? Jennifer Blake helps a severely wounded Derek back to his apartment, where they form a connection. Scott and the rest of the group are stuck spending the night at a creepy motel, which holds the record for being the motel with the most suicides in California. At the motel, Scott, Boyd, Isaac, and Ethan all begin to have horrifying hallucinations, and Lydia hears the last moments of people who have died at the motel.

Favorite Quotes
“I don’t like this place.”
“I don’t think the people who own this place like this place. It’s just for a night.”
“A lot can happen in one night.” (Lydia and Allison)

“Alright, so I have four.”
“Four? Seriously, you have four suspects?”
“Yeah. Seriously—ten. Well, nine, technically, I guess; I had Derek on there twice.” (Stiles and Scott)

“Scott, just listen to me okay. You’re not no one. You’re someone. Scott, you’re my best friend; I need you. Scott, you’re my brother. Alright, so…if you’re gonna do this, then you’re just gonna have to take me with you.” (Stiles)

My Thoughts First, I want to talk about our B-plot for this episode. We have Jennifer Blake helping Derek back to his apartment, where he heals a bit, they talk, and then they have sex. Personally I like Jennifer Blake—from the very little bit we’ve seen of her so far, she’s funny and at times sort of endearingly awkward, she obviously cares about her students (protecting them from the crows, telling Scott she doesn’t want to see his grades drop this year), and is seemingly sweet, or at least a good enough person to help Derek when he is dying on the ground in front of her.

However, the romance between her and Derek feels off somehow—their connection has felt rushed and has been given the appearance of more emotional depth than I feel the two truly have with each other, and for Derek “I don’t trust anyone” Hale to be trusting someone so much when he knows so very little about her seems quite unusual. All of which leads me to wonder if it is supposed to truly be a romance at all, or whether their scenes this episode were merely two people seeking comfort in each other, seeking an escape from the world around them. They even acknowledge in the scenes at Derek’s loft that they are basically strangers, and the lyrics of the part of the song that is playing over the scene when they first kiss seems to indicate that perhaps that scenario is what is truly occurring: Give me touch / cause I’ve been missing it / I’m dreaming of strangers / kissing me in the night / just so I / can feel something. Either way, I feel like something is going on with Jennifer Blake that we don’t know about yet.

I have a lot of feelings about all of the motel scenes this episode, but I’ll try not to spew them all over you. I’ll start by saying how much I appreciated seeing Stiles, Lydia, and Allison working together as a team to save the werewolves. We saw that these three are clever, brave, and work together very well. I especially am enjoying seeing Stiles and Lydia’s friendship grow to this level, where they work well together—for example, Stiles made the realization about the heat taking the werewolves out of their wolfsbane-induced state, and Lydia remembered the bus’s flares—and where they have enough trust and respect for each other that they can be truly honest, as Stiles was when he told Lydia that he thought she might be involved with the deaths because of the similarities with Peter in Season 2.

Isaac broke my heart (bravo, Daniel Sharman), though we didn’t learn much new information about his character in his scenes. The person we learned the most about from our pack was Boyd. Boyd’s nightmarish hallucinations told us how, when he was little, he was ice-skating with his sister Alicia and somehow she disappeared. It’s not quite clear whether she was kidnapped, killed, or if something else happened to her, but it is clear that Boyd blames himself for losing her, and that guilt is what drives him to his attempt to commit suicide.

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