#1 Parks & Recreation vs. #16 Miranda This one was never even close as the residents of Pawnee swept GBOAT and Miranda was held to three votes in the Screen Scholars balloting. Ms. Hart’s show was subtly brilliant as she cast her neuroses to the … Continue reading And The Winners Are… The First Eight Shows Into The Solid Sixty-Four!
As I was collecting thoughts for this section of our Comedy March Madness bracket, it struck me just how many of the shows’ themes were getting stuck in my head. It’s not particularly surprising that great shows would also have wonderful opening (and in some … Continue reading MMiA: It’s All About The Music…
Our first bracket could be a heartbreaker for many. It pits UK vs. US, recent vs. classic, a depressed middle-aged woman vs. a depressed middle-aged horse, man. Geographically, six{?!} are set in NYC, three in L.A., two in the London area, one each in South … Continue reading March Madness! The Outstanding 1-2-8: Section A
Television’s biggest movie night could not dissuade the rest of the TV from doing their thing. [SPOILER ALERT] The Walking Dead sent oversized teddy bear with a mullet, Eugene, over to Negan’s compound to flirt with the dark side, a move which met with mixed reactions. Indiewire‘s … Continue reading Sunday’s Best Reviewed: Girls
As part of our mid-year extravaganzas here’s a look through our favorite and least favorite finales of the season, and – SPOILER ALERT – we actually were satisfied with most of the season’s finales. Also, there are spoilers! Best Season Finales of 2016 Nashville LET … Continue reading Best/Worst Finales of 2015-16
Hannah and her soul sisters end their fifth season with a soaring pair of episodes which take all of the major Girls characters and advances them along the game of life and maturity one way or another. Just behind it, The Last Man on Earth continues its quiet roll in an entertaining episode featuring a prank war (including some of the creepiest facial hair) and some bold moves by Todd. On the other end of the spectrum, disappointing 1970s music industry drama Vinyl goes out the way it came in, with a tepid season one finale.
Girls‘ season 5 finale brought the return of Hannah’s prose — for better of for worse — and the group growing while gently drifting apart. Vulture‘s Kathryn VanArendonk notes it “feels like an unusual victory” for a “hopeful” ending to a “spectacular season.” Joshua Alston of AV Club observes that Girls‘ “finales always tie up the season in a way that feels appropriate and emotionally complete,” before endorsing this one as the best yet. We liked it too.
The Last Man on Earth – 8.7
The Good Wife – 8.7
Fear the Walking Dead – 7.1
Once Upon a Time – 7.0
Elementary – 6.5
Vinyl – 5.9
Quantico – 5.8
Season 5 of Girls wrapped last night and after a long — and often times grotesque — season of watching annoying, self-absorbed depictions of millennials we get back to the real deal. I was seriously hate-watching the show for the longest, but the final two episodes reeled the show in and reminded me why I fell in love with it in the first place.
Girls is ultimately about people finding their truth and living it. It’s about growing through discomfort and all the awkwardness in between. The girls are making some grown up decisions and confronting their true desires (including Elijah). For Marnie, it’s her divorce to Desi and accepting her feelings for Ray. For Shosh, it’s her newfound professional success rebranding the coffee shop. For Jessa, evolution is having a real-life intimate relationship with someone sober (even though I still disagree with this pairing, ahem girl code).
For Hannah, it’s realizing living a “normal” life is just not going to cut it for her. So peace out straight-edge Fran and toodles private school teaching gig, it was a nice run. She tried. Feeling kinda lost Hannah runs into an old college frenemy whose career success she envies. After spending the day together they have the realest conversation I’ve seen on TV in a long time where Tally admits how sad and lonely her “successful” life is. She envies Hannah in that she has actually lived, had relationships, done things, and reminds her she actually has something to say. Hannah leaves with a renewed sense of self. She goes running in the morning. She deals will awkward confrontations without self-destructive behavior — exhibit A running into Adam and Jessa together. She is so chill for once, and she hones in on her writing again which is a big piece of who she is and ends up on the stage of the Moth. She sums up her story accurately, telling us she is “free” even if for a moment and I relish every moment of it. Now, I can wholeheartedly look forward to what the next and final season has in store for us.
– Navani Otero
We’re in the part of the series where we’re just learning mankind’s capacity for cruelness as the apocalypse sunsets into the post-apocalypse. Unfortunately for our players, it comes in many shapes and sizes, and is often the reasons why certain folks do survive in such barren, brutal landscapes aren’t always the most compassionate. Unfortunately for us viewers, when portrayed imperfectly, it often feels less chilling parable than cold, pointless melodrama.
The Abigail and its tossed-together crew is drawn to a cove where a flickering light reveals a survivalist family, who we were intro’d to in an admittedly cool cold open featuring seafaring walkers. While the militaristic eldest son teaches Chris some techniques for battling undead which offer a glimpse into a darker side of the latter — both for viewers and dad Travis — the family is so hastily ferried in and out, and behave so inconsistently, that there’s very little with which to connect.
Much more compelling is the battle of wits between Daniel (damn, Daniel, at it again with the weird glower) and Strand as they poke at each other’s stoic foundations. It’s easy to forget as Daniel rifles through the mysterious man’s boxes for secrets (finding charts of Mexico), that Daniel is the one we actually KNOW has performed acts of unfathomable evil. In any case, Strand is up to something based on a furtive phone call. And next week we’ll meet up with the plane passengers of the interstitial mini-series and bring that all together, hopefully with a tad more emotion and action.
– Jason Thurston
Don’t mess with Hannah Horvath, Tina Belcher, or Alicia Florrick is pretty much the theme of this night — well, the above image anyway.
NAVANI’S PICK:
Girls back-to-back Finale [HBO, 10p]
This week we get two episodes for the price of one as we count down to the end of this show. I am BEYOND ready to tie up these loose ends if possible and move on. We see Ray and Shoshana finally reunite in ep 9 “Love Stories” which is also directed by Alex Karpovsky. Then some harsh realizations come about between Adam and Jessa. I mean duh, Jessa is super selfish she is not going to help you raise your sister’s baby, Adam wake up! I hate everyone on this show except Elijah. There, I said it.
KATHERINE’S PICK:
The Good Wife [CBS, 9p]
The show’s Edward Snowden returns to North America is detained in Toronto, precipitating an international sojourn for Lucca and Alicia. TGW’s NSA storylines are one of my favorite ripped-from-the-headlines stories on the whole show.
JASON’S PICK:
Bob’s Burgers [FOX, 8:30p]
They had me at Tina episode and singing group.
ALSO ON TAP TONIGHT:
We wave so long to Togetherness, but the show about midlife angst goes out on a bang with an episode mostly focused on the fight for a charter school{?!}. We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when — maybe Starz or AMC. Sunday was insanely busy with a roster full of premieres and finales. Four shows were essentially tied, a couple percentage points behind the Duplasses’ concoction, including its lead in. The girls of Girls come closer to back together at the same time their relationships fall apart, and receive another week of solid reviews. Bob’s Burgers would have achieved a perfect score last week for its moving double episode if one reviewer (no names) had written it up within the day. This week was not as memorable, but still a fun Belcher heist. On the less rave-y side, AMC’s other prequel, Fear the Walking Dead, gets middling reviews as its players all embark on one boat — but it didn’t pretend to be any more than the transitional, set-up episode it was. New Starz program The Girlfriend Experience, from Stephen Soderbergh, surprisingly earned only one graded review, although Vulture labeled it “one of the best shows of the year.”
The Duplasses’ (Mark and Jay with help from Steve Zissis) ode to the difficulties of making love stay as one’s thirties bleed into their forties exited into that dark night yesterday — but went out on a high note. Vulture‘s Phoebe Robinson mourns the show hard, as she “still can’t believe we won’t get to spend more time with these characters, but [she’s] slowly coming to terms with the fact that this show is over.” Gwen Inhat at AV Club was less glowing, but loved the series in general, adding “the show mined impressive depths of emotionality and feeling in the small time period, only to wrap up with a plot reminiscent of a Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland musical.” Our own Navani Otero was none too happy about it either.
The Last Man on Earth – 8.5
Girls – 8.5
Bob’s Burgers – 8.5
Billions – 8.5
Madam Secretary – 7.7
Once Upon a Time – 7.5
Vinyl – 7.4
Elementary – 7.3
Fear the Walking Dead – 7.1
The Family – 7.0
Quantico – 6.0
Tonight we have the most MTV awards of the season, a couple new shows coming in, one relatively short-lived series going out, a few programs start their new season, and all the charm that is Mr. Selfridge.
KATHERINE’S PICK:
Madam Secretary [CBS, 8p]
Elizabeth gets Boko Haram to release school girls. If Madame Secretary plans to fulfill all of my glass half-full fantasies, that would please me immensely.
NAVANI’S PICK:
MTV Movie Awards [MTV, 8p]
Pop stars and movies, yes please. I live for any chance to judge movies.
JASON’S PICK:
Fear the Walking Dead [AMC, 9p]
After a bumpy first season (read my thoughts on it here), Fear the Walking Dead returns in the shadow of the fan outrage from the final moments of its parent show’s sixth season. And now we’re headed to the boat for safety — that didn’t end well in Lost and I suspect it won’t go much better for our FTWD families.
ALSO ON TAP TONIGHT:
Screen Scholars 