Mentally erase those excessively maudlin closing moments, and "Herstory of Dance" becomes a sly, satisfying episode of Community, a clear standout in this wildly inconsistent fourth season. Much like its predecessor, "Economics of Marine Biology," "Herstory" eschews the high-concept stuff for a more traditional sitcom structure. Unlike that scattered half-hour, though, here the various plots all connect back to one main event -- the face-off between Dean Pelton's Sadie Hawkins dance and Britta's Sophie B. Hawkins dance -- giving it a cohesiveness that amplifies the comedy. And the puppet stinger at the end was a great tease for next week's all-felt outing. I don't care if it is a blatant rip-off of that fifth-season Angel episode; I can't wait to see more of Puppet!Annie, Puppet!Troy and Puppet!Pierece, the latter of whom is preferable to flesh-and-blood version at this point.

"The Future Dunphys" wasn't the worst episode of Modern Family ever, and I really enjoyed the visual gag of the titular future (and past) Dunphys. Manny and Jay's storyline was as predictable as it was humorless (though the actors are at least trying), and the Mitch, Cam, Lily and Gloria plot was terrible, but at least it acknowledged that these two gay parents with an adopted Vietnamese daughter don't know how to teach her about her culture or the very basics of her own body. I would have hated if that were the subtext, since it'd lead me to dedicating yet another whole piece about how problematic it is for a show that's supposed to be pro-gay to portray this family as grotesquely as it does -- but that being said, I've read convincing arguments in its favor, and maybe I would have even liked it if it was given more time to breathe instead of being stuck as one of three plotlines in a 22-minute episode. And besides, I really, really did like seeing future Luke, Alex and Haley, even if I was hoping for a just a bit more payoff. Here are the best lines of the night:

If you have trouble making it through an episode of the unrealistic (yet, in my opinion, charming) banter on Happy Endings, I'd be shocked if you were able to tolerate a few minutes of ABC's new How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life). Every character, joke and line of dialogue screams of trying too hard, and the interactive notes on-screen feel like a bad TV trend that we'll look back on in a few years and make fun of ourselves for. All of this is especially a shame, given that the show does have potential.

Welcome back to Westeros for another season of gruesome deaths, rampant nudity, black-hearted betrayal and dragon mothering. Here's our highlights reel of the Season 3 premiere, "Valar Dohaeris."

As a feminazi with no sense of humor, watching Modern Family is tiring -- but writing about this show is truly exhausting. To be clear, "The Wow Factor" wasn't all that bad, but also, I don't like genuinely hating shows... especially not comedies. I love being snarky and meticulously nitpicking what's wrong with Modern Family, but I take no pleasure in having to come here every episode and tell you why the half-hour of TV you enjoyed last night after your long day of work was actually, on my completely biased critical level, pretty crappy.

For better and mostly for worse, David Mamet's HBO telefilm Phil Spector is another case of Mamet being Mamet. Once upon a time -- back in the era of Glengarry Glen Ross, The Verdict and even The Untouchables -- this would have been cause for great excitement. But within the past decade, Mamet has become the conservative mirror of Aaron Sorkin; a writer who uses his various films, TV shows and/or plays as spoken editorials. Their characters aren't so much characters as platforms from which both Sorkin and Mamet can stand and shout from, to the cheers of their like-minded fans and the boos of the opposing side.

Back in the Dan Harmon days, Community would occasionally take a break from its high-concept stunts and try something really wacky: acting like a traditional sitcom. That was the kind of episode "Economics of Marine Biology" tried to be, one that didn't have any big post-modern comic premise on its mind or major plot points to address -- just standard situation comedy hijinks involving a group of (supposedly) funny people in a (supposedly) funny location.

After watching the recent Fox special Stars in Danger: The High Dive, we were convinced that not only was Splash going to be a waste of time, but that the entire concept of celebrities diving was pointless. And while it still is true that this is utterly unnecessary (as are most reality shows), at least Splash surprised us by being well produced, interestingly cast and kind of fun. Yeah, we're as shocked as anyone. We might even watch it again next week. Here's why:

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.

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.