Finales are supposed to provide endings. Court cases are supposed to go one way or the other. When we leave, we’re supposed to start a new life and close off our old one. However, life simply doesn’t work like that; it’s a constant barrage of revolving doors, of perceived endings and desired outcomes backfiring on you. It’s not to say that you should have a cynical worldview, but rather that you shouldn’t be surprised when an outlined resolution of yours ends up holding no weight. This is what happens to the characters in “Unhinged”, the season’s moving finale about the difficulty of moving forward.
The Bridge “Lamia” Review (2×07)
20 Aug“Sometimes I think it wouldn’t be so bad for it to be over.”
Fausto Galvan is the most important player in the show right now, but he’s the one most removed from the action; he’s still in that speedboat warehouse, suddenly overcome with a desire to see Norway and seemingly at his most vulnerable. Perhaps that’s a comment on the endless cycle of violence here and what happens when you cease participation for a while: you’re left with yourself and your past to mull over, and that cycle never relinquishes its grasp on your psyche. The violence is what keeps him going because it’s what he knows.
Friday Night Lights “Laboring”/ “Thanksgiving” Review (4×12/4×13)
20 AugThe final two episodes of season 4 of Friday Night Lights work in tandem to tell the stories of people who fall, people who feel the walls closing in around them and the world out to get them, people who go through a hell of a lot, but are able to find something to hold onto at the end of it all.
Nathan For You “Toy Company/Movie Theatre” Review (2×08)
20 Aug
While you’re in front of the camera, you tend to want to put on a show, but the brilliance of Nathan Fielder is his ability to turn that ‘show’ into a genuine look at human nature, one that’s awkward without being intrusive and funny without being mean. At certain points, the situations go a bit too far–that one girl tonight is on the verge of tears–but at the end of it all, he always pulls back and allows things to progress on their own. That’s where the comedy comes from.
Veronica Mars “The Wrath of Con”/ “You Think You Know Somebody” Review (1×04/1×05)
18 AugEpisode 4: “The Wrath of Con”
Well, this episode is fun. The last two cases were good, but nothing special; here, we see Veronica’s resourcefulness and creativity and intelligence at its highest level as she outsmarts everyone she comes across. It’s an episode about disguises, literal and figurative, and the former comes into play with the case: Keith the DEA agent, Wallace the math genius, Veronica the schoolgirl (Kristen Bell, you are killing me here). They make a great team.
Veronica Mars “Credit Where Credit’s Due”/ “Meet John Smith” Review (1×02/1×03)
17 AugEPISODE 2: “Credit Where Credit’s Due”
Ha ha ha, Paris Hilton, you waste of space. You make that one Neptune High extra in the background look like Amy Adams.
Anyway, the episode in general is certainly a step down from the pilot, as most second episodes are. However, it’s an episode that begins to delve into the class structure in Neptune: you have 09ers like Troy, Weevil’s guys, and ‘undesirables’, and the show seems intent on playing with your expectations as it explores these characters. We continue with Weevil, for example, in the way the pilot handled him: he fits a stereotype when you look at him from the outside–which is what most people in that society do when they slap the label on him–but when you know him as Veronica does, you see that he values honor and respect.
Veronica Mars “Pilot” Review (1×01)
16 Aug“Veronica Mars, she’s a marshmallow.”
This marshmallow has been through a lot. She was raped, her best friend died, and her parents split up, and gone is her former high status at Neptune High, her reputation as a hot and popular girl in a town without a middle class. We see and hear this explicitly, but the stylistic touches are also abundant: between the present day and flashback narratives, there are differences in color tone, in clothes, in hairstyle–the long, flowing hair more in line with the stereotypical pretty blonde–and it all creates a more surreal quality through the flashbacks.
Friday Night Lights “I Can’t”/ “Injury List” Review (4×10/4×11)
16 Aug“I Can’t”–Season 4, Episode 10
What an episode this is. It’s not every day that you see the topic of abortion handled with the nuance provided here by the writers and the actors, and the situation is heart-wrenching to watch unfold. Becky’s strained relationship with Cheryl is very much on her mind throughout, and she realizes that she’s the product of a situation akin to her own, that her mother harbors resentment for the impact teenage pregnancy had on her life. Yet, that abortion never happened, and while Becky wants to go on to do bigger and better things, she now also wonders about her own child. Enter Tami Taylor.
Rectify “Until You’re Blue” Review (2×09)
15 Aug“I want people to talk to me in my language sometimes. That does not make me the bad guy.”
The above quote, said by Amantha to Janet, is a perfect representation of how so many people in Paulie simplify things so as to make it black and white or us versus them or good guy versus bad guy. The Daniel Holden case brought our main characters together, but it was under the constant pressure and watchful eye of an angry crowd. It was under shared hardship, not shared happiness, and although it’s united them under a common goal, it’s also torn them apart and prevented them from living life as a true family.









