Smash – “The Parents”

Season Two, Episode Nine

Grade: C

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After the story-lines of Smash were put into overdrive the past few episodes, we’re back to a steady tempo in “Parents,” where we see Karen’s father and Ivy’s mother. Let’s start with Ivy and Leigh, who in the past have had a toxic relationship. That hasn’t changed, but what hurts Ivy the most is that Tom and the rest of the production crew of Bombshell already decided to have Leigh join the show as Marilyn’s mom. Sure, they knew it was going to create some problems, but they decided it was in Bombshell’s best interest to have a piece in the New York Times. What a story it is, Broadway veteran Leigh and her daughter star in Bombshell!

While the move does work out very well and Tom is able to direct the two effectively, Ivy has the last word when she tells Tom that she only works for him now and is no longer his friend. You could just see Tom’s heart break, because he was trying to do everything in his power to be the “nice” director and to listen to all of the cast members to try and maintain a democracy production. But it was foolish to believe that possible, almost like Michael Scott trying to befriend everyone in The Office.

Once again, I didn’t find the Bombshell half of the episode very compelling. There really isn’t anything fresh about that production and even though they keep tweaking the show here and there, all of the craziness is behind them and they’re ready to be launched on Broadway. What I did like was how Julia and Eileen went to the event that was showcasing Hit List, just to scope out Derek and Karen’s show. And they absolutely killed it, especially Ana’s acrobatic performance as the diva. I was actually anticipating something going wrong but am glad nothing did.

The Hit List half of the show, in my opinion, is way more interesting than Bombshell. The chemistry between Karen and Jimmy carries it, but adding Derek’s reputation and conflict between those two, and with the pressure of competing with the production they left, half of every episode just isn’t enough. They’re becoming the underdogs of this Broadway rivalry and it’s hard not to root for them against the bigger, more expensive Bombshell.

As for the C-story with Jimmy and paying back his dealer, I don’t feel it enhanced the episode in any way, but I am glad that it seems to be over with for good (though I’m sure that bag Jimmy takes is going to ruin a performance in the near future). And the little story with Karen’s dad accusing Derek for influencing her to leave Bombshell, but then realizing it was Jimmy, that felt very out of place though it’s typical seeing Karen being stomped on.

Overall, “Parents” was a pretty bland episode of Smash without that show-stopping number I long for. Ana’s performance was close to that, but the visuals over-powered the actual song. This might become an issue for Hit List so stay tuned for that. Also, Smash is now moving to its new time-slot, Saturday night. Not sure how this is going to affect the show, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the last season for Smash.

TV Blur (3/24-3/29)

I’ve been sick the past week so I wasn’t able to write any new posts on the TV shows I watch. So here are several briefs and comments in the past week of television.

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The Walking Dead – “This Sorrowful Life”

Grade: B-

Merle gets shot in the chest by the Governor and then is knifed in the head by Daryl. It was a tough episode for Merle, but I can’t say that I didn’t see his death coming. Another non-shocker was when Rick changes his decision to give Michonne to the Governor, but it’s too late because Merle already captured her and is on his way to deliver her. We get a heart-to-heart between two supporting characters, sort of feel for Merle, which is obviously the kiss of death in The Walking Dead. At least her went out in a blaze of glory by taking down several people at Woodbury.

Merle, like all of the supporting characters in The Walking Dead, has his own story and one that is worth telling. But the show hasn’t concentrated anything besides Rick, the Governor, and Andrea the entire season. I understand The Walking Dead is under a lot of pressure keeping its record-breaking ratings alive and displaying constant zombie-killing is essential, but it’s hurting the potential of the show that is post-Shane. Since his death, we haven’t spent much time at all with anyone besides the leads. Take a page from Game of Thrones, Mad Men, or Boardwalk Empire and develop the characters.

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How I Met Your Mother – “The Time Travelers”

Grade: A-

During the latter seasons of HIMYM, Ted has taken a back-seat to the other characters on the show. Marshall and Lily have a baby and have to deal with parenthood, and Barney and Robin are engaged and have to deal with their preparations. But Ted is still the main character, hence the title. So I do appreciate it when they decide to spend some time focused on Ted and his quest to find his wife instead of Lily working for the Captain, or Barney adding a new page to the Playbook. And that’s exactly what this episode gave us.

After plenty of gimmicks where Present Ted and Present Barney talk with 20 Years Later Ted and Barney, plus other future versions of people, the somber message was how Ted was lonely while his friends are all coupled off. But then he reveals that in 45 days, he’s going to meet his wife. These are the sort of hints and foreshadowing that made HIMYM so much fun to watch. Now there’s an actual short time-frame to when Ted will meet his wife. Fans rejoice!

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Revolution – “The Stand”

Grade: B+

Revolution returns for their second half of the first season with a bang! We left off with Monroe now having the power to run helicopters, so that’s bad news for practically everyone, especially the Resistance. Now that Rachel is with the gang, it’s growing more evident how she’s the most important person in this black-out world, and also enemy number 1 to Miles and now Randall. Why? Probably because she has the answers to all the questions.

The amplified helicopters are finally shot down by Danny firing a missile launcher, but not without the copters taking out Danny before crashing to the ground. All of the first half dealt with Charlie searching and rescuing her brother. All of that for nothing! I applaud Revolution for this death, just like how Ben and Maggie bit the dust early in the season. Revolution seemingly has no problem killing off characters, something major network series shy away from doing. But this all happened for a reason. Rachel cuts out a small chip-like pill apparently containing power. What the hell is that and what can it do?!

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The Following – “Guilt”

Grade: B-

My favorite part about this show is the story between Ryan and Claire. They’re the only two characters I really care about because how can you really care about any of the murderers? Emma is annoying, Jacob is now a badass for suffocating Paul, and Joe Carroll is just waiting for his wife to return. Who cares? But Ryan/Claire actually makes for some good TV. We get to see them this episode but we haven’t seen it enough so far and I’m afraid we’re not going to see them together for a while.

After Ryan desperately tries to keep Claire safe, she eventually leaves with Joe’s lackeys to see her son. Yeah I get it, she’s not thinking and all she really wants is to see her son again, but she’s entering a house of crazies at at the helm is her psychopathic husband. Yeah, real good choice, Claire. Oh and one last note, The Following does such a poor job at using flashbacks. Please just stop.

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New Girl – “Chicago”

Grade: B-

Sitcoms have it tough when they have an episode around someone’s death. It has to be done. Recently, How I Met Your Mother had one and now New Girl. New Girl takes the much lighter approach, but with little essence. Nick’s father dies and we meet Nick’s insane family. None of it is very funny. I laughed the hardest at Schmidt’s fear of open caskets.

What the episode did was display Jess to Nick’s family and show how she was able to diffuse their craziness and even fit in. After everything, Nick’s mom approved of Jess and she points out that it’s nice to have someone like her look after Nick. We’re just getting closer and closer to when Nick and Jess start dating.

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The Mindy Project – “Danny’s Friend”

Grade: C-

It’s Stevie. Oh, I was just answering the question that the title suggests in, Who is Danny’s Friend? This was a very uneven episode of The Mindy Project. While Mindy, Morgan, and Jeremy are trying to play detective figuring out why Danny’s been prescribing drugs off the books, Mindy has a run in with Heather who wants an available apartment in Mindy’s complex.

I’m excited that this show was renewed, but I really feel that The Mindy Project has to find its focus, and quickly. Like all the romantic comedies Mindy loves, the show’s strongest aspect is when it comments on relationships and friendships. Why not have that as its main concentration? I don’t know, but the show spends far too much time elsewhere. It needs to develop a story arc and keep with it.

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Smash – “The Bells & Whistles”

Grade: B

In the episode prior, Smash really stepped on the acceleration pedal and launched us to its current situation. There are two musicals we’re watching: Bombshell and Hit List. While it’s good to see different productions work out in different stages, the problem with this is that I doubt anyone enjoys both musicals equally. For me, Hit List is far more intriguing than Bombshell. I don’t know whether it’s because it’s new and fresh, compared to Bombshell which we spent all last season on, but probably also because it’s the underdog compared to Bombshell. All the broken pieces fell off of Bombshell and landed in Jimmy’s Hit List.

Sure, Jimmy and Derek bickering all episode was annoying, and Tom trying to befriend his cast was an obvious disaster. But they’re both trying, which says a lot more about Derek than Tom. Just one last comment, I really wish Smash just stopped covering songs Glee style because that’s when it’s at its worst.

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Nashville – “When You’re Tired of Breaking Other Hearts

Grade: B-

Juliette continues to be difficult as she ignores her label and throws an impromptu concert, which results in disaster. Maddie lies to her mom and dad and gets injured at the show. Meanwhile, Gunnar angrily mourns his brother’s death and skips out on showcasing him and Scarlett’s talent to Rayna’s potential record label. And Avery quits his current gig. Just a typical episode of Nashville!

First off, I could care less about Avery but this episode made you feel more for him other than that selfish prick who was wrong for Scarlett and dumped everyone just to be discovered. He seems to understand the mistake he made and is trying to stick with the only thing he knows: his music. Scarlett is offered a contract to Rayna’s label, but without Gunnar. If the show is going to split them up musically, I might stop watching because their music is the strongest aspect of the show, emotionally. And finally, who would’ve thought Juliette giving Deacon a puppy would’ve landed him a girlfriend?

Smash – “Publicity” (S01E12)

It’s really hard to like Ivy by the way she manipulates everyone to get her way. And is the production of a Broadway musical this conniving and ruthless? I wouldn’t know, but if any of the stunts being pulled in Smash is remotely true, then why would anyone want to be involved in that profession?

Anyway, Rebecca and Karen become “gal pals,” but boyfriend Dev isn’t too fond of Rebecca when she accuses him of being the problem to Karen’s stardom. Karen’s stuck in a sticky situation here, and unfortunately it doesn’t look like either way is a winning one. Rebecca Duvall obviously isn’t going to be around forever, but Karen is simply too star-struck to let her go. Meanwhile, she’s a good girl and will always go back to Dev, but maybe she’ll get a glimpse of who Dev has been hanging out all of these nights he’s either “working late” or she’s caught by the paparazzi with Rebecca. Oh the drama.

Meanwhile, Leo went missing for three days, but the possibility of something terrible happening to him reunites Julia and Frank. Even if it was for just one dinner, this was the closest we’ve witnessed the family since Julie’s affair with Michael hit the surface.

At the end, Ivy gets her way when Ellis agrees to text Karen that she’s not needed at rehearsal since Julia’s still out. This gives Ivy the opportunity to take the ballad that was originally given to Karen to sing. But after a beautiful number that moves everyone in the rehearsal, Rebecca steps on their hearts by declaring she wants to sing it. I could hear Derek’s teeth grinding all throughout the closing credits.

Television Blur (4/21/12)

How I Met Your Mother, “Now We’re Even” – While last week’s episode of HIMYM was very disappointing, this week’s episode dealt with the characters and the relationships at stake, which is when HIMYM is at its finest. Barney wants to distract his lonely nights by trying to make every night “legendary.” Meanwhile, Ted brags about how incredible living alone is. Marshall freaks out because Lily has a sex dream about someone other than Marshall. In the end, the story-line that had the most heart was with Robin trying to be well-known. She went up in a helicopter to cover some news and her pilot suffers a stroke. Her dangerous landing is covered on the news and she gains the fame she wanted. But more importantly, her near-death experience ensures that everyone contact her, including Ted who hasn’t spoken to Robin since she rejected him. You can always count on HIMYM to inject some painful, reality in their silly sitcom.

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Smash, “The Movie Star” – Rebecca Duvall, played by Uma Thurman, makes her episode debut and… she cannot sing. Everyone gives her the movie star treatment and watches her in awe as she removes her coat, but once she opens up her mouth the ensemble is less impressed. Ivy has danced her way back into the production by the hand of Derek, which isn’t good news for Karen. Meanwhile, Eileen hooks up with Nick again, Dev flirts around and distances himself with Karen, and Tom and Sam go out on a date. The show keeps trying to maintain its steam from the beginning of the season, but it’s becoming stale week-after-week. Let’s see what kind of trouble Rebecca Duvall will create as there are only a few episodes left in the season.

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New Girl, “Kids” – Cece freaks out because she’s late and might be pregnant, which introduces us to the theme of the episode, also conveniently titled, “Kids.” Jess agrees to babysit Russel’s daughter, who is also one of Jess’ students. She tells her roommates to be normal, but that impossible when Cece’s freaking out, Nick’s dating a high-schooler, and when Schmidt is being Schmidt. In the uninteresting story-line, Winston tries to calm his boss down to talk to Michael Strahan. While the first half of the show was slow, the second half made up for it with some classic Schmidt moments. And the “adorkable” scene of the episode was Jess and Nick sitting on the floor trying to talk to Russel’s daughter when she feels embarrassed admitting she has a crush on Nick. We all know the Jess and Russell relationship isn’t going to work out, but will the relationship last it to the second season? We’ll find out soon enough.

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Community, “Virtual Systems Analysis” – You can always count on Community to provide the most engaging half-hour of television every week, and this episode was no different. In fact, this was arguably the best episode of the season. When Annie meddles in Troy and Britta’s afternoon by setting them up on an impromptu date, she fills Troy’s void by joining Abed in the dreamatorium. As she tries to teach empathy to Abed, she learns a lot about the group dynamic that Abed already knows. But in the end, she’s accepted in Abed’s imagination-playing room. I was thoroughly impressed with the technology used in the episode, as it was so easy to follow what was going on in the real world while it constantly flashed to the imaginary world Abed was creating. This was another Abed-centric episode, but since Community is a show that comments on the state of television, Abed is the perfect character to concentrate on frequently. In short, Community does it again.

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The Office, “Angry Andy” – While Nellie is trying to weasel her way to take Andy’s managing position in Scranton, Andy has difficulty getting aroused with Erin. The word leaks out and Andy is embarrassed to no end. As the title suggests, Andy takes out his frustration of his embarrassment and how Nellie won’t relinquish his office with a rage we haven’t seen since Andy put his fist through a wall (which he does again). Andy is going to take some time off, but things are looking up, since the adrenaline resulted in Andy able to have erections again. The Office still has its moments, but as a whole it’s a sinking ship that really just needs to be put out of its misery. Nellie is a terrible character, Dwight is annoying without being the side-kick to Michael Scott, and they’re just recycling the Jim&Pam story with Andy&Erin. Let’s hope the end is near.

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Parks and Recreation, “Live Ammo” – Leslie Knope is in the middle of a heated campaign for city council and finds herself in trouble when she pushes to prevent a budget cut to the Parks and Recreation department. As a result, the animal shelter budget is slashed, which means all the animals are to be put down. This doesn’t go over well for Leslie’s public image, so she adopts all of the animals. Meanwhile, Chris invites Ron to meditate in order to prove he’s capable of handling something he doesn’t want to do. But in the end, that doesn’t matter since Chris was informed that if Leslie loses to Bobby Newport, he will lose his job to someone of Bobby’s recommendation. The tension increases! There really wasn’t any Tom and Anne together, and that’s a good thing. I laughed the hardest when Andy was playing with the pet toy while he thought it was a pet. Hilarious.

Uma Thurman on NBC’s Smash

For those who have been following NBC’s Monday night musical-drama, Smash, you all know that a certain movie star is about to make her presence known to try and land the lead role as Marilyn Monroe in “Bombshell.” Rebecca Duvall will be played by the wonderful Uma Thurman as she fights against Ivy and Karen for the role.

Smash has already been renewed for a second season by NBC, so does this mean that Uma is here to stay for the long-run? Probably not, but with Ivy and Karen bonding last episode, let’s see if those two team up against Rebecca Duvall and her fame in the upcoming episodes.

Television Blur (3/17/12)

Smash, “Chemistry” – Let me just get this off my chest, if the melodrama between Julia and Michael goes on for much longer I am going to ran a fork through my eye sockets. Okay, I’m better now. Aside from another episode of Michael swooning for Julia and both of them engaging in terrible decisions while leaving their families behind, “Chemistry” was sort of an unimportant episode. The fire between Ivy and Karen is still intense when Ivy comes down with laryngitis. She then takes a steroid to ensure that she can practice and sing for the workshop presentation, but that creates plenty of mood swings and hallucinations that troubles the leading lady of the Marilyn. Karen falsely gets her hopes up of taking over as Marilyn, but gets a break when a big-shot listened to her sing at the bar mitzvah. Once again, nothing major happened in the episode, but I’m still enjoying it regardless.

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Luck, Season 1 Episode 7 – All season long, we’ve been introduced with a handful of engaging characters and we have watched them go throughout their everyday business. We see Jerry gambling his money away, Ace plotting his revenge, Escalante getting pissed off, and a lot more. Even though nothing has seemed to happen yet, a lot of things are constantly in motion and that’s why I love this show. In the latest episode, Walter makes a decision to take Rosie off the horse and potentially having Ronnie ride Gettin’ Up Mornings soon. Also, Jo tells Escalante that she’s pregnant and he takes up the task by being a great parent to a young boy with an abusive uncle. Meanwhile, Ace and Joan Allen become closer and Jerry and Naomi heat things up. The big action scene of the episode is when Michael bashes Nathan’s skull in with a glass ashtray. Just when Ace was beginning to like him. We’ll see exactly what this will force Ace to do in the final two episodes of the season.

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Alcatraz, “Clarence Montgomery” – This was mainly a throw-away episode aside from one bit of information that they revealed: that there were experiments being done in Alcatraz that involved extracting blood, infusing it with radio-active material, and then injecting it back into the inmate. So is that what they’re doing to Tommy Madsen? But why? The episode revolved around Clarence, an innocent African American who lived through a tough time of discrimination where “white people always got their way.” It so happens that Clarence was involved with some more experiments in Alcatraz involving a psychological change that turned Clarence into a killer. At the end, Clarence found himself at the wrong end of a shotgun blast. Oh, and looks like Doc Soto has a date.

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The River, “The Experiment” – We last left off at some outpost that Emmet Cole’s body was dumped off at in the video tapes, but when the crew reaches the same outpost it is abandoned. This episode dealt with the reason why Kurt took on this mission. His girlfriend was here when a deadly virus was released, turning everyone exposed to it into a flesh-eating zombie. Kurt mourned his loss but at least had the quick turn-around to shoot her zombie state in the head. If only Rick from The Walking Dead had that kind of quick thinking. Anyway, Tess and Lincoln finally are reunited with Emmet, as he was cocooned like a dragonly, preserving his resources until a better time presents itself. The team manages to get Emmet back on the ship, but they have to deal with two zombies, one that kills a recently rescued Rabbit. After Kurt takes out one, Emmet surprises everyone and takes out the other one. I’m not exactly sure what to expect in the season finale, but it seems like there are still a lot of things to resolve, and I doubt The River will get to everything. What impact with the Xulos tribe have as the crew tries to leave. And what’s the deal with Emmet Cole? I’ll be surprised if he makes it out alive come next week.

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New Girl, “Control” – While I have enjoyed the majority of the first season of New Girl, this week’s episode did not impress me one bit. It actually might be the worst episode of the season. All the characters don’t move forward: Schmidt and Cece are still barely something, Nick finds another way to be a jerk, Winston still doesn’t matter, and Jess tries to change a good thing once again. In the episode, Jess changes Schmidt from being the control-freak of cleaning and providing for the rest of the apartment to a free-spirited hippie. Meanwhile, Nick and Winston argue about who owes each other money. Both story-lines were bad and therefore, this episode simply shouldn’t have been aired at all. Hopefully the last two episodes (a two-parter) makes up for this terrible blunder.

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Awake, “Guilty” – I’m glad that the show isn’t snowballing faster than before it even had time to set its feet into the ground. With the bombshell that Awake dropped on us last episode, it’s beneficial that they ignored the whole mystery about this guy in a suit to allegedly took out Britten’s family. Anyway, we’re back to the family drama of Britten’s family still grieving for the loss of a family member. Hannah attends a charity function when they honor her son, and Rex feels terrible for wishing that his mom was still alive instead of his dad. Meanwhile, a convict escapes from his shackles and kidnaps Rex, seeking justice for the crime he never committed. After he’s shot to death, Britten must confront this convict in his other reality to locate Rex before it’s too late. There were plenty of good moments throughout the episode, and even though the plot was predictable it was still worthwhile. The shrinks didn’t have a major role in this episode and I hope they return to more of his therapy sessions soon.

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Community, “Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts” – There was nothing that I enjoyed more than the return of Community. After a hiatus, the Greendale gang returned to NBC. Pierce and Shirley team up to start a sandwich shop in the cafeteria when Andrew re-proposes to Shirley. Even though Britta and Jeff deeply oppose marriage, it so happens that Britta is a brilliant wedding planner. Meanwhile, Troy and Abed OD on being weird so they can be normal for Shirley’s wedding rehearsal. This specific story-line was my favorite because Community is always self-aware of its situation that this was basically poking fun at the fact that Community is too different for the general public to grasp. But at the end, Troy and Abed decide to embrace their weirdness and hopefully so will Community.

Televisionn Blur (3/10/12)

Luck, Season 1 Episode 6 – Cursed by the 42-minute-long basic television network shows, I’m not used to the amount of information that HBO’s Luck provides week after week. But once again, we have a lot of shifting of the chess pieces instead of some important moves during this week’s episode. We get a deeper look at Joey, who reached the point of his distress by calling his ex-wife and then tries to kill himself. Only an earthquake saves him. Meanwhile, Ace sends Nathan to meet with Mike and his two lackeys to convince them he has the Indian Game Board on his side. We know that Ace seeks revenge against Mike, but it’s still uncertain exactly what he intends to do to accomplish that. At the racetrack we have two races: Gettin’ Up Morning destroys its competition, though Walter is pissed at Rosie for using the whip, and Mon Gateau wins with Leon riding, though there was an inquiry regarding a possible foul that Leon was luckily not penalized for. This episode kept the usual slow-boil pace just like every episode of the series thus far. This is still one of the best shows on right now, and the value of multiple viewings increases the quality of this HBO series.

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The Walking Dead, “Judge, Jury, Executioner” – Something major happened during this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, so this mini-review will contain spoilers. Daryl kept warning us that the group is “broken” and that’s why he’s better off staying on his own. The group has finally sided with Shane and has agreed to kill Randall, but Dale does his best impression of Henry Fonda and tries to sway everyone to his side. It doesn’t work. Meanwhile, Carl is rebelling against everyone. First he disobeys Shane by climbing into the barn to talk with Randall, next he talks back to Carol, then he steals Daryl’s gun and taunts a walker, and finally he creeps into the barn when Rick was about to kill Randall. This kid is out of line, but I guess how else would a kid act in a world with no rules and death breathing on his neck? The conclusion made up for the lack of action throughout. Dale investigates a noise that is coming from a wounded cow when the same walker that Carl was taunting from before attacks Dale and rips open his stomach. The group responds to his screams, but it’s too late. Daryl puts a bullet in his head with the parting words, “Sorry brother.” Wow. It was certainly an emotional ending to a mediocre episode. Dale represented the ethical mindset of the group. With him out of the way, who knows what kind of chaos will develop.

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Smash, “Let’s Be Bad” – I don’t exactly know what it is about Smash, but I’m growing a bit weary of the series. Aside from it being the Glee for grown-ups, its characters are lacking (for the most part) and the themes being explored are too shallow to really dive into. Anyway, the drama continues with only one major thing happening at the very end of the episode, which was the kiss shared between Julia and Michael (like we didn’t see that coming a mile away). Meanwhile, Ivy is still being a snotty diva, Karen is still struggling with confidence whether it’s during the workshops or being paraded around by her boyfriend, and Tom is playing hard-to-get. For some reason, Derek is becoming one of my favorite characters (not because he’s a douche) because he’s the only one you really don’t know what to expect from. One minute he can melt Ivy into a puddle, the next he’ll be flirting with the waitress, and then the next he’ll want nothing to do with anyone around him. Overall, it was a good episode, not great. Oh at last note, more Kathryn McPhee numbers while she is undressing, please.

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The River, “Doctor Emmet Cole” – Just as the title suggests, this week’s episode of The River focused on the man who is missing, Emmet Cole. After a lead, the team located a pack with more video tapes that the crew gathered around to watch. Emmet Cole and two crew members traveled deep into the jungle following Cole’s hunch that the “source” is close. Russ didn’t buy into Cole’s blindness, but that didn’t stop Cole from exploring deeper into the jungle and putting his and his crew’s life in danger. They run into some mysterious happenings, leaving a monkey and one of the camera crew members skinned to death, but that doesn’t stop Cole from moving onward. All alone, he basically starves to death, but is rescued by a tribe who leave his body near an outpost. On the tape, there are plenty of people in this area who take him in. But then the video goes blank. The crew on the Magus trek into the jungle and locate the outpost, only to find that the place is abandoned and basically looks like an army ransacked it. The most revealing moment of the episode was when Lena told Lucas that she set off the beacon that made Tess and Lincoln go on this mission to find Emmet Cole. She just wanted to find her father, and now that she has, she’s realizing what kind of danger she has put everyone through. This might not be the best television program on air at the moment, but I’m surely intrigued about how this season will end.

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Awake, “The Little Guy” – So it turns out that there is a lot more than we had expected involving Britten’s “accident” and his two worlds. Somehow, I think that they pushed this story-line way too early in the series. I would’ve liked if they showcased several episodes of police procedures, family grieving, and therapy sessions before dropping a bomb on us, but here we have it. We don’t actually have enough information to figure out what’s going on, but when Britten’s boss Harper meets with that man in the suit at the end, they discussed that she’s monitoring him and how the suit shouldn’t have wiped out his entire family. Say what?! There is just too much to even compute about this cliffhanger, but overall the episode was well-crafted with Britten still using signs from each reality and passing them off to his partners as hunches. The scene when he watches both his wife and Rex ride that motorcycle was a very touching moment.

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New Girl, “Injured” – I love it when sitcoms have sports in an episode. New Girl opened up with the buddies playing a game of football when Jess plows down Nick and injures his spine. When Jess brings him in to Sadie, she notices a lump on Nick’s neck and advises Nick to get it checked out asap. With this sudden news, Nick and his friends assume the worst and what follows is a series of hilarious overreactions at the possibility that Nick could be dying. Meanwhile, Winston has a really tough time letting go of his car. Just like every episode of New Girl the ending is super sweet. The gang spends the night at the beach where Jess falls asleep by Nick’s side and Cece and Schmidt cuddle on the beach, while Winston sleeps in his car for what would be the last time. This wasn’t the best episode of New Girl, but it was standard for Jess and company.

Television Blur (3/3/12)

The Walking Dead, “18 Miles Out” – The episode was split into two story-lines: one focusing on Rick and Shane duking it out while trying to release Randall, the kid Rick saved outside of the bar, and one focusing in on the girls back at the barn where Beth wants to commit suicide because of her hopelessness. The action took place during the Rick/Shane scenes as they once again don’t see eye to eye. This time they decide to settle things with their fists until a swarm of walkers are released. Shane barely makes it out alive from the assistance of Rick and Randall. Meanwhile, Lori and Andrea butt heads with their opinion on how to ensure Beth doesn’t kill herself, which ends with Beth cutting herself with broken glass but shallow enough that she’ll survive. Call me crazy, but I’m beginning to go over to the dark side with Shane’s logic. Rick is too indecisive and unable to make tough decisions quickly. Nonetheless, these two dynamic characters are the heart and soul of The Walking Dead.

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Luck, episode 5 – Ace and Gus push their buttons with Escalante by calling out his gambling scheme. They order him to throw Leon out and hire the best jockey to ride Pint of Plain. This causes Joey to go into a rage, especially when Ronnie confesses he switched agents. Meanwhile, Marcus sees the doctor and is prescribed Valium. Under the drugs, Marcus confuses his care for Jerry as homosexual feelings, which Jerry laughs off. It’s the most sensitive we’ve seen Marcus all season long, but it shows the relationship between the two railbirds. At the end, Pint of Plain gets injured by a horse shoe during the race and we see another tough character let down his guard with an act of sentiment, Ace petting Pint of Plain.

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How I Met Your Mother, “Karma” – This season of HIMYM has been very uneven, with episodes of pure awesomeness and then others that are disposable. “Karma” was an episode in the middle of the spectrum. While the story-line of Barney pursuing Quinn at the strip club was dull and very unfunny, the story-line with Robin feeling captive in Marshall and Lily’s home on Long Island was pretty effective. But what matters is that Ted has become the main character again. Coping with the death of the idea of him and Robin, he tries to fill her room with something to forget her by. The conclusion was important to the progress of the series. Finally with Marshall and Lily back in the city, they don’t have to be excluded from the gang’s shenanigans. But where is Ted going to live?

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Smash, “The Cost of Art” – Finally, Karen catches a break this episode and makes some friends in the workshop for Marilyn the Musical. They teach Karen how to become part of the ensemble instead of always standing out, but it’s clear at the end that she’s meant to be a leading lady, not one that blends in with the rest of the cast. Meanwhile, Derek throws a party for a young TV-star, Lyle West (guest star Nick Jonas). The characters begin to understand the situation clearer: Ivy sees Derek for a flirtatious and untrusting boyfriend while Karen finds out that Ivy slept with Derek for the leading part. From the preview of next week’s episode, looks like this is just the beginning rounds of the Ivy vs. Karen match-up.

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The River, “Peaches” – What kind of curse will the Magus find them-self with this episode? Well, their engine is shot and they need replacement parts to avoid being stranded on the Amazon River. Luckily for them, there’s another boat in the area. The Exodus and its four-person crew aboard the Magus and they laugh, cheer, and share stories with each other like a group of friends on a camping trip. But they soon find out that the members of the Exodus are ghosts trying to leave their ship by capturing people to replace them by sunrise. Lincoln, Clark and AJ race to save their crew before it’s too late. The episode concentrated a lot on Lena and her search for her father. When she finds him on board of the Exodus, happiness pours from her face, but she’s left with the opposite when she has to leave him on the Exodus along with the other ghosts.

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Awake, “Pilot” – This new NBC drama has a lot of potential. The plot is simple yet complexly fascinating: Michael was in a car accident with his wife, Hannah, and son, Rex. He is currently living two realities, one where Rex died from the accident and one where Hannah has died. He is a police detective and in both realities, he has separate cases to solve, different partners, and different shrinks. The dilemma is that he doesn’t know which world is real and which is a dream. Pretty cool, huh? The cop portion of the series seems like it’s going to be very procedural: two intertwining cases every episode where he has these “hunches” because of his other reality. But the best part of the show will be the psychological aspect of Michael dealing with the loss of a loved one. Awake will show how different, or similar, his world ends up being if his wife or son died in that crash.

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Parks and Recreation, “Campaign Shake-Up” – The campaign of Leslie Knope has been running quite smoothly the past few weeks, but that all changes in this past week’s episode when Bobby Newport hires a new campaign manager, Jennifer Barkley (Kathryn Hahn). She’s smart, has quick wit, and on top of that she is over-the-top friendly. Time and time again, Jennifer plays Ben and Leslie for a fool, which results in Team Leslie wiping away their recent punk’d spot with alcohol. Meanwhile, to avoid a new hire to fill Leslie’s shoes, the Parks and Rec department have to solve the problem of germs spreading from the water fountain. These were easily the funniest scenes of the episode. I laughed out loud every time someone actually put their mouth around the spout of the fountain. In the end, Ron promoted April. The episode was missing the usual shenanigans that I love from Tom and Andy, but adding Jennifer to the race will add some nice political comedy between both campaigns in upcoming episodes.

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The Office, “Test the Store” – For me, this week’s episode of The Office was disappointing. When I’m not falling out of my seat with laughter by the time the opening credits are rolling, I’m already dreading the rest of the episode. Anyway, the Sabre store is opening and Dwight is striving to be the leader that will gain him the VP position. They’re showcasing the Sabre Pyramid and everything falls apart when Ryan flees from his presentation. Meanwhile, in the Scranton parking lot, Andy gets a black eye from protecting Pam from a group of young girls on bikes. Toby gives a self-defense class, but eventually the truth is revealed and Andy is teased mercilessly. Back at the store, Jim fills in for Ryan and impresses the crowd. At the end, Dwight is named VP and celebrates with his usual leg-kick and fist pumps. Again, I wasn’t impressed by the episode at all.

The Premiere of NBC’s “Smash”

Smash – Pilot (S01E01)

After all the hype around the Steven Spielberg produced musical-drama, Smash finally premiered last night to an impressive audience of over 11 million. I guess that happens when your network broadcasts the Superbowl the night before and when you have a lead-in like The Voice. But in any condition, Smash impressed me on many levels last night and definitely shows a lot of promise. Hopefully they can keep up the tempo throughout the entire season.

We are thrown into the world of putting together a Broadway musical. The beginning stage includes writing songs, finding a director, some choreography, and holding auditions. The duo of Julia Houston (Messing) and Tom Levitt (Borle) are the songwriters and thanks to Tom’s newly appointed assistant, they agree to attempt writing a few songs for a Marilyn Monroe musical. After a video of one of their songs goes viral on the Internet, Broadway producer Eileen Rand (Huston) jumps on the project and ties director Derek Wills (Davenport) to the musical as well. The second half of the episode deals with veteran actress Ivy Lynn (Hilty) and struggling actress/waitress Karen Cartwright (McPhee) auditioning for the lead role of Marilyn Monroe.

What I was so surprised about from the pilot episode of Smash was how well everything worked together. There was a simplicity to the plot that made it easy to follow along, but there were enough dynamic characters to get the ball rolling in the show’s favor. Debra Messing and Christian Borle had a very strong chemistry that lit up every scene they interacted. But the show was far from being a happy-go-lucky type of musical.

My attention was really captured by Katherine McPhee’s performance as Karen Cartwright, the unhappy waitress and aspiring actress unwilling to let go of her dreams yet, but understanding her time is almost up. She’s receiving pressure from everyone, even herself, except for her boyfriend Raza Jaffrey. Knowing that this is probably her last straw to grab at before succumbing to her parents’ wish to join the real world, it seems that she’s willing to do almost anything for this role.

There is also conflict that stems from each character and when they tangle with one another, that makes for interesting television. The Tom and Derek spat provided the intensity for the pilot, but you know they are far from done with their hatred for each other. Eileen is going through a divorce and Julia and her husband are trying to adopt a child. There are more than enough story-lines to fill season one.

I am a believer that Smash should be a hit among any type of audience. It’s refreshing to hear original songs after Glee has ruined plenty of Top 40 songs from the past decade. But the main strength that the show has isn’t its gimmick of being a musical, it’s the story surrounded by strong characters and talented actors. I can’t wait to see Marilyn: The Musical come to fruition on Smash.