TVSquad

(S03E08 / S03E09) Haven't I always said that the best episodes of Doctor Who are generally set in the past?

I deliberately waited until the second part of this two-part episode had aired before making any judgments on it, partly because the first episode promised so much, but left things hanging in the balance -- but also because it was a sharp turn away from the recent filler episodes which had found me falling asleep on the settee.

But this was a different beast altogether; classic Doctor Who with sinister villains, a curious plot, some romance and a whole heap of adventure and emotion.

(S03E07) I'm starting to get the feeling that Russell T. Davies and company are filling time for a big run-in towards the end of series three of Doctor Who.

Last week's episode, 'The Lazarus Experiment' was almost an exercise in filler TV, and this week's roll of the dice (die?) took us into the far reaches of outer space, some time in the future, where a crew of humans were plummeting headlong towards a Sun-like star.

The '42' in the title referred to the 42 (or so) minutes duration of the episode, and the 42-minute countdown until the ship exploded in the corona of the burning sphere.

(S08E22) Was it me, or was there just too much happening in this episode? "Screwed" was a culmination of not just this entire season, but of the entire series. And we're left, once again, to wonder whether the SVU squad is going to be disseminated.

The episode starred Ludacris, reprising his role as Det. Tutuola's stepson, Darius, from a March 2006 episode. But, despite the stellar acting job from Ludacris, it wasn't about him at all. In fact, his alleged crime wasn't even the center of the story (I stopped trying to remember the Ludacris episode when I realized that it didn't matter). Instead, Ludacris was the tool the writers used to pick apart all the mistakes the SVU detectives have made over the years and leave us hanging about their fate. The detectives were the ones on trial.

(S04E24) CBS has been teasing this episode for a couple weeks now, with promises of secrets being revealed. They did get to the big one, though that was more of a confirmation of what we already expected. Overall though, I think they oversold it. Another case of the promotions department writing checks that the writers aren't cashing.

That feeling of something being incomplete carried over into the rest of the episode as well. It just didn't have the feel of the big season finale. The show set a very high bar with "Twilight" in season two and can't afford to just phone it in like this. Half of this episode could have just been dropped right in the middle of any other episode and it wouldn't have made a difference. That's fine, for episodes 2 through 23, but the big guns have to come out for the first and the last.

(S10E16) After a week of hellish home buying, Bad Guys was a welcome episode of SG-1. I didn't take the plot very seriously - and neither did the entire cast. Most of the performances were a bit over the top - from the hysterical screaming woman to the hero wannabe security guard. Despite being completely unrelated to the current story line, the writers did make some effort to tie things in.

(S08E21) I hate it when the promos ruin an episode. It's hard to tell whether this episode of SVU was a good one because I knew from the promos that the girlfriend was a "black widow". It took a really, really long time for the story to unfold and I felt impatient because I wanted to see the evil side of this girl.

(S03E06) It's almost inevitable for any good series to hit a slight dip when it reaches the half-way point in a series, and Doctor Who isn't immune to a lull in pace.

I honestly wasn't expecting much of "The Lazarus Experiment", and even though the special effects were of a reasonably high standard, the whole story was somewhat disjointed and hurried.

A few weeks ago, I made a point of suggesting that someone would soon have to start explaining why the Doctor bumps in to trouble everywhere he goes (apart from driving TV viewing schedules), and this episode finally started to indicate that something might be causing our favourite time-traveller to wander in to the path of out-and-out trouble everywhere he goes.

(S05E24) This was a bit of a departure in terms of what we've come to expect from a season finale in the world of CSI, be it Vegas, New York, or Miami. I'm not complaining though. This episode felt much more like a wrap up of the fifth season of CSI: Miami and rather than leave us hanging with a ton of questions (there were a few), it left me feeling far more satisfied than I expected. Especially since we can look forward to plenty of new developments in the fall. I actually felt much better that one spoiler which had been floating around, never came to fruition. It appears that the whole mess with Horatio being in a plane crash may have just been an exaggeration of the van crash that did occur in the episode. For once, I was glad we didn't get a grand, nail-biting finale.

(S18E20)

Bart: You can't send him away. He's a dog, not Grandpa.

Special hint: if you're ever lost in a giant maze (corn or otherwise) you can find your way out simply by keeping your hand on the wall and walking.

You know, if Santa's Little Helper is the main focus of an episode, chances are it's not going to be very good. I didn't laugh very much during this episode, but here's what I did like:

(S05E16) After watching this episode the first thing that came to mind was the scene from the season four episode "Jungle Love" where Stewie traveled across the country to slap Will Ferrell. I'm starting to get the feeling that Seth MacFarlane, or someone at Family Guy central, could use some Griffin family negative reinforcement.

I'm speaking of the chicken fight scene. Well, scene isn't really appropriate. Segment would be more apt I suppose. I'm generally one that enjoys when shows reference back to things they have done in the past. Things like Chris' roommate at Morningwood being the son of James Bottomtooth from "Brian Goes Back To College" are great. But there are only 22 minutes per episode. Taking a quarter of that for the chicken fight is just ridiculous.

(S03E17) "Sorry E, the Manneschevitz does not flow until sundown!" -Ari

Well that was a long time coming. Amanda is out and Ari is back in. I have to be honest though. I wasn't too enthralled with this episode only because I had a pretty good feeling as to how it was going to end. I mean, of course Medellín was going to fall through and of course Amanda was going to get blamed. Was there any other logical way for her to make an exit short of giving Vince some sort of rash? I kid about that, but I suppose you have to wonder. She was so quick to hop in the sack with Vince... how many other clients has she "gotten to know?" It doesn't really matter though because Ari is back and he seems more determined than ever.

(S07E22) Another one-shot episode and a crazy one at that. Fortunately we got some little hints as to what may be in store for everyone as the season winds down.

The main case as I said was a bit crazy. Believers of some kooky reptilian race were behind the conspiracy and murder of a Las Vegas black-jack dealer who they apparently thought was some kind of hostile lizard queen. Hmm... there's a sentence you don't find yourself typing out every day.

(S14E12) Episodes when there is one member of a decimated alliance still struggling to avoid getting voted off can either be fascinating or a snore. This one is actually a bit of both. I generally have a soft spot for the underdog but Alex is flatly unlikeable. Case in point, early in the episode, the increasingly needy Stacy approaches Alex to try and be friends after the show, his response, later to the camera is to say "like I care." Nice.

(S03E22) I'd have to go back and do a scientific study of previous Office episodes to be 100% sure, but it felt like the first 20 minutes of tonight's episode set some kind of cringe-per-minute record. It might seem odd coming from an Office fanatic, but I've never really enjoyed the cringe stuff as much as I've enjoyed the more subtle character moments.

I was happy, then, when the episode took a less cringey turn at the midway point. What disappointed me was that I felt, maybe for the first time, that there was some mishandling of the characters for plot purposes...

(S02E20) Up to this point, we've seen how his upbringing, home life, and troubles at school helped to shape Chris' worldview, but this is the first episode where we caught a glimpse of what made Chris want to be a comedian.

Since this series is a somewhat fictional take on Chris' life as a kid, we don't know if the real Chris Rock sneaked downstairs to eavesdrop on his parents listening to Redd Foxx albums, but one assumes young Chris was probably exposed to the legendary comedian at some point, not to mention the likes of Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy and George Carlin.