BLOGS
Season 4 of Justified has been a textbook example of a crime drama done right -- there's a perfect mix of violence, sex, puns and plot twists in every single episode, to the point that we're constantly asking ourselves if that was the season finale. March 19's "Decoy" is no different, especially considering that it revolves around Raylan and the gang trying to get Drew Thompson out of Harlan alive. To pump up the episode and discuss his take on the series, Walton Goggins, Harlan's own Boyd Crowder, took a press call, where he was both ridiculously charming and dead-serious about his work. Sound familiar? Below are the highlights.
At the risk of pulling a Britta, I could logically understand Lena Dunham's defense of not having a racially diverse cast in Season 1 of Girls, but I can't stand Season 2's acceptance of male anger. Adam has risen to co-star status this season, which from afar seems like an improvement given that Adam Driver is clearly the best actor on the series, but I think that it generally has hindered the show in a very serious way. Girls Season 1 was about a group of young women struggling to find their identities through their various relationships with each other, and occasionally, through men. Season 2 was about several fair-weather female friends who completely unravel when there's not a strong male presence in their lives, while the men who matter to them thrive or at the very least, actively try to become better people. (And now that Season 3's writing staff is mostly men, to say I'm pessimistic would be an understatement.) Whereas Hannah stumbled through the season coping with overwhelming stress-induced OCD, Adam made a few charming speeches and was rewarded with a girlfriend on whom he could take out his repressive issues in what I'm going to go ahead and call "gray rape," becoming the storybook hero the show so desperately wanted him to be in the Season 2 finale. In the same way that, say, Rihanna is not responsible for being a role model for battered women and has every right to get back together with her abusive ex-boyfriend, just because Girls was marketed as a series for young women to commiserate with, I guess it is technically okay that it's become a show where the ladies are emotionally immature (at best) and the guys are the focal points, if not the anti-heroes. Sure.
Our brave soul of the week award goes to the Alan Cumming-lookalike who went on a date with Abby Lee Miller in order to get some screen time. That's a pretty high price to pay for 30 seconds of fame. Hope it was worth it.
All season long, I've bemoaned Community's attempts to recapture what it was before instead of trying to move forward and embrace what it is now. "Advanced Documentary Filmmaking" is a case study in that, as it resurrects the documentary device that the Dan Harmon version of the show employed to such memorable (and formally innovative) effect and proceeds to get a failing grade in execution.
I'll admit right now that I was already pretty biased going into "Bailout" -- Jason Schwartzman was my longtime high school crush (I wish I could tell you it was because of Rushmore or even Freaks and Geeks, but it actually spawned after Slackers) and I've been a fan of Jenny Slate's since before she was on Saturday Night Live. Also, hello: "Time After Time." I could totally understand an argument on why this installment could have felt repetitive or even like a filler episode (outside of Chris's dad-cision), but come on... we got two Sappersteins in one sitting. Let's get to grading.
Given that The CW moved Cult from its plum Tuesday time slot to 9 PM on Friday nights after only two episodes, we figure that the future does not look bright for this series, or the show within the show -- we've even stopped recapping it because we can hear the death knell coming. Since we really do like the cast, we're hoping that they move on to bigger and better things when Cult is inevitably cancelled. Here are our suggestions.
Travel back with us to a time when a show called The Mob Doctor was on TV...
It was yet another nostalgic outing for Saturday Night Live this weekend, as Justin Timberlake gained membership into the "Five Timers Club" for quintuple hosting gigs and the writers celebrated by raiding the show's back catalogue for (vaguely) fresh material. Some of these reunions with old friends were welcome, while others were... well, really kind of cringe-inducing. Here were the best and worst callbacks from an overall uneven episode.
Last week, Rachel did a Which Character Are You quiz based on this program, and I ended up as Ray. It only confirmed my weekly feelings of how I'm probably too old to be watching this show. As I near closer and closer to 40, I find myself watching this series, especially an episode like "On All Fours," feeling like a dinosaur and getting mildly depressed about the fact that the only characters I remotely relate to are Hannah's parents. But in some ways, I'm grateful that I am an adult and know not to put Q-tips too far into my ears because I listened when my mother told me the thing about the elbow. That's not to say I don't find the show fascinating. For me, it is like going to the gorilla area at the zoo and studying these strange creatures that sort of look like me but are also incredibly different. So here's my "old lady" take on the characters this week.
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