review-related stories
Posted Nov 19th 2009 1:05AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Top Chef
(S06E12) When I saw that the title of tonight's episode was "Culinary Olympics," I didn't really imagine what the chefs would be going through. Were they going to be pole vaulting into the kitchen, did they have to prepare a meal on an ice skating rink? What could be the Olympian angle? Well, apparently there's a culinary competition that's as intense as the Olympics -- and it's not held in a kitchen stadium with Alton Brown doing play by play.
That said, this may have been one of the toughest assignments ever on
Top Chef. I tried to envision how past season winners -- let alone the runners up -- would have done in the same circumstances that these final five faced. I can't say for sure that I can think of one that would have aced it ... and for how this five did, read on.
Continue reading Review: Top Chef - Culinary Olympics
Posted Nov 18th 2009 2:00AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, NCIS, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S07E08) NCIS did something so great on tonight's episode that I'm surprised I haven't seen it done on another procedural until now. If you haven't seen the show yet, I won't spoil it, but I will say that it was a complication that really made the show.
There were moments for DiNozzo to reference all kinds of TV shows from the past, a chance for Gibbs to prove that there's nothing he can't handle with aplomb, and even the opportunity for Abby to show that sans Cafe Pow, she's still the sharpest lab tech in NCIS. More on the case after the jump.
Continue reading Review: NCIS - Power Down
Posted Nov 14th 2009 12:55AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S08E13) Just three more episodes till the end of
Monk, so it sort of feels like they're wrapping up some loose ends. Tonight, the focus was on Leland Francis Stottlemeyer, Monk's best friend, the guy who has been solidly behind Adrian through all the difficult years since Trudy's death, helping Monk to cope and remain gainfully employed as a police consultant.
Leland's always been a good guy, but not so lucky in love. As the title suggested, if Mr. Monk is the best man, that means that Leland was the groom. More about the nuptials after the jump.
Continue reading Review: Monk - Mr. Monk is the Best Man
Posted Nov 11th 2009 1:12AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, NCIS, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S07E07) People who don't watch
NCIS usually think the show is all about the military, all about forensics, all about criminal procedures, etc. Well, an episode like this is a perfect example of how character-driven the show actually is. Leon Vance has not been as interesting as the director of
NCIS as Jenny Shepherd was, but the look into his back-story we saw with this episode may be a game changer. For one thing, he has some wife.
But as much as the Vance story and his weird connection to Kai drove the show, it may be the sad sack McGee subplot that resonates. Poor probie. Tough luck, McGeek ... or McDigit, as Tony dubbed him. The redhead was a looker. Tony and Ziva were impressed. Oh well ... more after the jump.
Continue reading Review: NCIS - Endgame
Posted Nov 10th 2009 2:00AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S07E07) Charlie Harper engaged has been a pretty big pill to swallow, but the way
Two and a Half Men has handled it up to now is to make the engagement open-ended. Like a TV series with no end date. Charlie has adjusted to life as a man with a "ball and chain" as Alan put it. He's been quite good ... for Charlie.
But when the screws are put to our man Charlie, when the future gets a date, well, that's just a bit too much reality for a wild thing like him to handle. That's the set up. For what happened, keep reading after the jump.
Continue reading Review: Two and a Half Men - Untainted by Filth
Posted Nov 9th 2009 12:01AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Mad Men
(S03E13) It's a cold Friday, December 13, 1963. The President's been killed and the world as Don Draper knows it has pretty much fallen apart. For most of the season, the ground has been shifting under Don's feet and he's be holding on, trying to right himself and his life. He's tried with Betty. He's tried for Sally and Bobby and Gene -- at least as much as Don is able to try.
With Conrad Hilton he's never been on a level playing field, and from the moment he was forced to sign the contract, Sterling Cooper has not been his domain as it had been. With this episode, this season finale, all was changed and, perhaps, all has been righted. More after the jump.
Continue reading Review: Mad Men - Shut the Door, Have a Seat (season finale)
Posted Nov 3rd 2009 1:04PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Casting, Reality-Free
I consider this a huge coup for NBC. After traveling through time and space in the TARDIS the past several years, it looks like
Doctor Who's David Tennant is heading stateside to take the lead in Rex is Not Your Lawyer. Tennant will star as Rex, a top Chicago litigator who becomes so crippled by anxiety that he takes to coaching his clients into representing themselves.
The idea is completely madcap, but I think Tennant has just the right kind of wacky tenacity and cavalier bravado to pull off the role. In fact, it was apparently difficulty in casting the role that delayed the project until Tennant bounced in and nailed it.
It'll be interesting to see what they do about his accent. Tennant is Scottish, but adopted an
"Estuary English" accent for his role as the Doctor. I think the Doctor's accent would work tremendously with the comedic role described here, but I can see the showrunners pushing him to make like Hugh Laurie (
House) and so many others and go American with it.
Posted Oct 24th 2009 5:05PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Software, Reality-Free
The Colbert Report's The Word is one of those iPhone applications that takes advantage of that sort of portable player. The Word is one of those segments that doesn't translate well to a book, unlike Letterman's Top Ten Lists. Video clips better convey the emotion of the segment.
Basically, the application is all the clips of Colbert's most famous segment, and I mean all of them. The app requires a WiFi or data connection to work (because you don't want all those clips taking up memory) but they're constantly updated. I'm not sure if this will be forever or until they get bored with it and figure out another way to make money.
Continue reading The Colbert Report's The Word - iPhone app review
Posted Oct 21st 2009 2:35PM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: Site Announcements, Ask TV Squad, Reality-Free
The "
Ask TV Squad" column, published every Wednesday, answers your questions about current and past TV shows, as well as about the celebrities appearing on TV. Every week, I will pick a question (or more) sent to us and provide answers in the column. If your question is not picked for a column, it may be answered in a subsequent column or in
TV Squad's APB Podcast. To submit questions to the "Ask TV Squad" column, you can post them below in comments or email them at
asktvsquad@gmail.com.
This week, I answer questions about our own site,
TVSquad.com!
Continue reading Ask TV Squad: The TV Squad edition
Posted Oct 21st 2009 1:32AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: NCIS, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S07E05) Happy Halloween from your friends at
NCIS! There was definitely some creepy stuff going on with this case, and for the first time in weeks, the concentration of the show was strictly on the mystery. No Ziva flashbacks, no Gibbs questions about Mossad, no Vance at all. It was just about how a Marine recently back from Afghanistan wound up dead in his car on the night before Halloween.
Continue reading Review: NCIS - Code of Conduct
Posted Sep 17th 2009 9:37PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, The Office, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S06E01) Welcome to season six of
The Office (wow... who would have thought we'd be looking at the sixth season of this show? I didn't, and I liked the show from day one). Jay Black did a great job of reviewing the show the last couple of years, but his stand-up and other duties have called him away on Thursday nights. So your humble editor has decided to take over and sink his teeth into one of his all-time favorite shows.
Even though we pick up season six somewhat where we left off last year -- Pam's preggers, but she and Jim haven't told anyone around the office yet -- it's otherwise just a regular day around Dunder Mifflin. Well, regular in that Michael spends the day telling rumors to cover up one that's actually true, we find out that not all is what it seems in Stanley's life, and Andy is seriously questioning his sexuality. Like I said, just a normal day...
Continue reading The Office: Gossip (season premiere)
Posted Jul 31st 2009 3:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
(S03E08) In the latest Michael adventure, our hero was hell-bent on getting back into intelligence work – nothing new, really. However, that meant dancing with Strickler, a foxtrot that Fiona was reluctant to take part in ...
More on Fiona's vulnerabilities after the jump. Meanwhile, another job popped up when Barry, money launderer and occasional member of the Michael troupe of operatives, called in all his favors and became the client.
Continue reading Burn Notice: Friends Like These
Posted Mar 13th 2009 2:03AM by Michael Pascua
Filed under: OpEd, Grey's Anatomy, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E17) "There's no fixing you. You're a lemon." - Derek
It's official: I'm an emotional loser. After two weeks without my weekly Medical/High School drama,
Grey's is back and even more dramatic than I remember. Has
Grey's Anatomy been this good in a while? I always thought that with such a big ensemble cast, the show was bound to have loose ends. With this episode, it seems as though each character is what I remember from the first two seasons.
With no big guest stars this week, the characters developed amongst themselves. I appreciate the return of the Meredith/Christina friendship, now back at full strength, but why does it seem like when Meredith solves one thing, another falls apart? She suffers from the Chaos theory.
Continue reading Grey's Anatomy: I Will Follow You Into the Dark
Posted Feb 21st 2009 12:10PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Episode Reviews, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Reality-Free
(S02E15) Have you ever been to a funeral? They're not usually very thrilling. All that awkward silence, standing around, and the hard-to-watch mourning will deflate anyone's day. So why set an episode of
Sarah Connor at a funeral?
I guess the writers wanted to remind us about the Skynet war death toll. It's high. We get it. Can we move on now?
Continue reading The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Desert Cantos
Posted Sep 13th 2008 10:06AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Monk, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S07E08) Monk should have wrapped the season with last week's episode, ending on a high point, because this show was in many ways a downer. The case, such as it was, was pretty flimsy. The clues were presented so early and rather ungracefully that unless you were really unfamiliar with the
Monk formula, it was a cinch to guess who was really the "guy."
The real novelty was Monk's getting in touch with his inner child. That and Tim Bagley returning as Harold Krenshaw. It's always fun when Monk's nemesis shows up, but this was a reborn Harold. Thanks to his new shrink, Dr. Kleinman, Harold wasn't interested in competing with Monk. He just wanted to embrace the wonders of life.
Continue reading Monk: Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized (season finale)
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The Prisoner -- An early look
