My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - 2x011 - Hearth's Warming Eve

    The ponies travel to Canterlot, to star in a pageant about the founding of Equestria.  That's just the framing device.  The story they star in has the earth ponies, the pegasus ponies, and the unicorns in a conflict, dealing with a harsh Winter.  Learning to work together helps them overcome their problems, and leads to the founding of Equestria.
    I like this type of mythological episode.  And the device used to utilize the main characters rather than rely on new ones was handled very well.
    This episode is important to me, because one of my first concerns in the show was the obvious inequality between the types of ponies.  The pegasus ponies have an obvious special ability.  The unicorns get to use magic, allowing them all kinds of abilities.  The earth ponies have no particular advantage.  They seem to be stuck in a rut of being farmers, and not much else.  The episode tries to address that, making it clear that the pegasus ponies manipulate the weather to ensure that crops can grow.  And the unicorns somehow use their magic to ensure that day and night come.  That just sounds like an excuse to me.  I think they're a ruling class that doesn't actually do anything for the good of Equestria.
    That's not that I don't like them.  I mostly just think that the earth ponies really deserve something special to set them apart.  There's no reason that unicorns or pegasus ponies can't farm.  Maybe they could establish that the earth ponies are stronger than the other types.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - 2x06 - The Cutie Pox

    In her desperation to get her cutie mark, Apple Bloom takes a potion from Zecora's place.  She gets a cutie mark, and starts showing off her new ability.  Then she gets another mark, and starts doing both things.  Then more marks continue to show up.  She has the Cutie Pox, and she needs some guidance to solve her uncontrollable behavior.
    I have ambivalent feelings about the episodes that focus on the younger ponies, since I think I can identify more with the older ones.  But this one is pretty fun.  The story is decent, but the animation really sells this one.  There are plenty of great designs, and all kinds of clever movements.
    I really enjoy the cutie mark idea, and it's much more engaging having them define the character so clearly.  Having distinct rules governing how the marks work builds Equestria effectively.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - 4x01 - The Best of Both Worlds, Part 2

    With Riker in command of the Enterprise, he coordinates a plot to retrieve the assimilated Captain Picard, and hopefully save Earth from the Borg.
    This second half is a bit better than the first half.  We don't know quite where Riker is going with his plans, and the audience is kept in the dark roughly as much as the Borg are.
    The episode allows Riker and his nemesis from the first half to work together in an effort to devise a plan that Picard wouldn't have had any knowledge of.  There's plenty of action, and a certain amount of emotional resonance.  It's implied that the experience of being a Borg is unpleasant.

Ray Bradbury Theater - 3x03 - The Lake

    A man recalls when he was 10, visiting a beach on a lake, where a girl he had a relationship with drowned.
    While I enjoyed this one while I was watching it, I realize now that the story moved really slowly.  Effectively, nothing happens until the last few minutes.  We get a vaguely Twilight Zone ending, which doesn't feel right.  The episode may have played better if it went with a straight ending.  Pretty forgettable though.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - 3x26 - The Best of Both Worlds (Part 1)

    The crew investigates an outpost that seems to be missing, and the Borg is suspected of being the culprit.  A new character shows up to provide some tension with Riker while the Enterprise locates the Borg.  It turns out that the Borg aren't interested in destroying the Enterprise - they want Picard specifically.
    It's a solidly great episode.  I'll have more to say after watching the second half.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - 3x25 - Transfigurations

    The Enterprise picks up the sole survivor of a crash landing (I think) on a planet in a system they're mapping.  After Crusher does some quick work, the survivor starts healing unusually fast.
    I feel like this episode is a story that has been told several times in Star Trek.  It turns out that the survivor is a next evolutionary step for a local species.  He's able to heal (and hurt) people with some glowing touch.
    It's not a great episode, but it doesn't bother me.  I think there's one main problem.  Geordi has a link with the survivor, and the effect seems to be increased confidence, allowing Geordi to pursue a girl he's interested in.  While this is a pleasant plot, it doesn't feel like it gets tied into the story as firmly as it should.  Also, I don't think it results in anything that exists beyond this episode.

The Simpsons - 13x04 - A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love

    After starting a brief career writing fortunes for fortune cookies, Homer becomes Burn's help as Burns develops a courtship with Gloria.  It turns out that Gloria is Snake's ex-girlfriend.
    I think the 13th season is when The Simpsons started to rebound a bit.  The episodes were never the same as their peak period, but the episodes are entertaining, and they don't annoy in the way that the weakest ones do.
    So this episode is actually pretty good.  Homer gets a strange first act, which is still pretty amusing, and then there's always something enjoyable about seeing Burns-heavy episodes.  It's fun.  The last act feels a little rushed.  Once Snake is introduced, the story moves much faster than it should.  The pacing could have been fixed by eliminating the first act, picking up with the second, and developing the story a little better.
    Regardless, the episode is perfectly fine.  Still not my favorite of the season - that was Jaws Wired Shut.

Futurama - 7x06 - The Butterjunk Effect

    Leela and Amy become a team in a sport that involves flapping around with butterfly wings, fighting another team.  This leads to them getting hooked on Nectar, an equivalent of steroids.  In order to help them acquire more Nectar, the team go to Kif's homeworld to harvest some.

    This was a strange episode to summarize, because I actually covered the first two thirds of the episode.  And this was the fun part of it.  The relationship between Leela and Amy is always fun.  Most of the other characters didn't have too much work to do.
    I didn't care for the last act of it.  While looking for Nectar, Fry gets attacked by a massive, male butterfly.  It sprays him with some gunk, which makes him irresistible to women who have been eating Nectar.  It also eventually turns him into a bizarre, massive butterfly.
    The problem with this episode is in the ending.  While the idea is fine, there's no elegance to the ending.  It plays out exactly like a Family Guy ending (which reminds me of the ending of the South Park episode Fat Camp).  While this type of ending can work really well, in this case, it felt like they were just being sloppy.  I'm used to getting some really good plotting out of Futurama.

Futurama - 7x07 - The Six Million Dollar Mon

    After declaring himself the least useful member of the Planet Express team, Hermes decides to fire himself.  His doubts about his self-worth lead him to have parts of his body replaced with robot enhancements.
    I didn't care for this episode as much during the first act.  There were fun moments, and some good gags.  I especially liked Hermes pointing out that his staff reviews were the least efficient thing going on at Planet Express.
    The heart of the episode is the relationship between Hermes and Zoidberg, which gets emphasized throughout.  Mostly, Zoidberg interprets Hermes expressing his disgust as a sign of endearment.  Zoidberg misses the cruelty that Hermes heaped on him, so he assembles a ventriloquist Hermes from the discarded body parts that are being replaced with robot equivalents.
    It's this plot that really makes the episode work.  It's a joy to see Zoidberg work with a dummy Hermes in a routine.  And the ending scene is great - we get to hear Zoidberg sing an approximation of The Monster Mash.
    And it ends on an effective note.  We don't get to see Zoidberg stand up for himself much, but in this case, he delivers a fairly devastating remark to Hermes, but frames it as a joke.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - 2x03 - Lesson Zero

    Twilight Sparkle realizes that she's gone almost a full week without learning a lesson about friendship, and she believes that if she misses an assignment, she'll be sent back to "magic kindergarten."  So she tries to search out a friend having a problem, and when that doesn't work, decides to create a problem.
    It's a very good episode.  The writing for Twilight is spot-on, nearly exactly what I could imagine Cathy saying.  The animation is excellent as always, with some great manic designs for Twilight's descent into madness.
    But beyond that material, the rest of the episode has some excellent character building bits.  We see Rainbow Dash helping Applejack destroy a barn, which has a great design of Applejack wearing a helmet.  I didn't care for the stuff with Rarity at first, but this time, I really liked her fainting couch.  Fluttershy got a great sequence of her pushing a bear around, ending in a massage.  The only person that really felt like they didn't get enough time was Pinkie, but I suppose that's acceptable.
    The important thing that this episode established was that it permitted the writers to change up their stories more freely.  No longer does Twilight need to remain inserted into every story, anyone can learn a lesson.  This opened the door to favorites like A Friend In Deed, which barely has any of the other characters.  This type of freedom allowed for the whole show to blossom over the second season.

The Simpsons - 11x22 - Behind the Laughter

    Formatted to replicate the experience of watching Behind the Music, the episode takes the approach that the family is real people, performing on a sitcom.
    This is a strange episode.  It seems fairly meta, which is a trend that ramped up as the show went on longer.  The narration is a string of mixed metaphors, which are amusing, but I can't help but feel like the episode is a bit empty.  My favorite gag is seeing Homer at the mixing console.
    What's interesting is that I think that the brief section in Treehouse of Horror II with the monkey's paw.  When Bart wishes for the Simpsons to be rich and famous, the short bit that follows covers their fame adequately.  A solid episode of it is funny, but not ha-ha funny.

The Simpsons - 3x23 - Bart's Friend Falls In Love

    Milhouse develops a relationship with a new girl at Springfield Elementary, Samantha Stanky.  Bart is annoyed by the change to their relationship.  In a B-plot, Homer tries a subliminal weight loss tape, which was swapped with a subliminal vocabulary builder.
    This episode came toward the end of the the 3rd season, which was ramping up for the greatness that is the 4th season.  For an episode so packed with excellent writing, it's actually a very simple episode.  The plot doesn't take big turns, there aren't side paths that distract from the plot.  Homer's B-plot is a wonderful distraction, but never feels like it takes away from the A-plot.  In fact, Homer's plot is so brief that it could probably be boiled down to taking up about three or four minutes.  But every line in that plot is just fantastic.  "There's a Machiavellian countenance."  "Lamentably, no.  My gastronomic capacity knows no satiety."
    Bart and Milhouse haven't had a story with as much emotional resonance as this one.  Further adventures usually deal with Milhouse's family life, or focus extensively on how much of a loser he is.  That's not to say they aren't entertaining, but this story treats Milhouse in an unusual light.  He's ahead of the curve with Bart.  Eventually, having a girlfriend would make him much more confident, and Milhouse would easily overtake Bart's dominance.  I'm reminded of the relationship between them during Bart Sells His Soul, when Milhouse has ownership of the paper, and Bart is getting frantic.

Futurama - 7x05 - Zapp Dingbat

    Leela's parents have their anniversary.  Leela shows a film to commemorate the occasion, which leads to the two of them promptly getting divorced.  On the rebound, her mother, Munda, meets Zapp Brannigan, while her father, Morris, spends his time surfing waves in the sewer.
    This is probably the worst title I've seen for any episode.  But I was actually pretty happy with the story.  There were some fun bits at Mos Def Cantina, which had some nice designs, and it was a joy to see Morbo's species as the Modal Nodes.
    There was a standard sit-com feel to most of the episode, until the ending, which was too convenient, and mostly forgettable.

Bob's Burgers - 1x04 - Sexy Dance Fighting

    Tina's crush at school moves away, and in her depression, she finds a new person to crush on.  A martial arts instructor, who teaches a strange form that looks like a strange form of dancing.  It involves flipping around the room a lot.  The only offensive moves seem to be sweeping, and hair-whipping.  When Tina starts missing work time for it, Bob goes down to investigate, and gets in a fight with the instructor.
    More development than I expected, and it kept a pretty good focus on the characters, rather than developing secondary plot lines.  The show maintains an interesting balance between the dark, scatological, evil side, and the lighthearted fun side.
    I did feel like the instructor wasn't as developed as he could have been.  A character like that would have fit in perfectly on King of the Hill.

Bob's Burgers - 1x02 - Crawl Space

    Bob is sent into the attic to plug a leak in the ceiling in preparation for his mother-in-law's visit.  While he's up there, he notices that there's a substantial crawlspace.  He drops down, finding that the space extends around the apartment, and down into the first floor, where the restaurant is.  He decides to stay there for awhile, in an effort to miss his mother-in-law's visit.
    I was glad to see improvement over the first episode.  The characters get developed a bit more, and we're treated to a few really strange sequences.  Both of these are easily my favorites - Tina has a strange fantasy that involves a pair of erotic zombies.  And Bob has an extended dream that has him meeting a human-size version of the glowing doll that he has as a light source, in the context of the bar and bathroom scenes in The Shining.  This is really strange, but very likable.
    It's also a real pleasure to hear H. John Benjamin's voice acting again.  I've been a big fan of Dr. Katz, and it's strange to hear his character being the responsible one.

Bob's Burgers - 1x01 - Human Flesh

    Bob enlists his family to try to ensure an good opening day for a re-opening of their burger joint.  It turns out that his youngest daughter told her show-and-tell class that the burgers they sell are made with human meat salvaged from the funeral home next-door.  The health inspectors arrive and post a large poster in the window indicating that they are under investigation.  It turns out that one of those inspectors is a former boyfriend of Bob's wife.
    Stef likes this show, but he never said anything about it.  I was kind of skeptical, but for a pilot, the episode was pretty decent.  I didn't feel like they relied as much on exposition as pilots usually do.  I still don't have a full grasp of the show, since it seems strangely realistic, but also bizarrely surreal.
    Not much in this episode stood out, but it felt uniformly well-handled.

The Simpsons - 4x11 - Homer's Triple Bypass

    Homer's heart gives out, but they can't afford Hibbert's bypass.  They use Dr. Nick as a discount surgeon.
    I'm sure anyone reading this has already seen the episode many, many times.  It's one that I didn't care for as much when I was younger, but it feels funnier, and a bit darker.
    My father had a heart attack when I was around 6.  It didn't strike me as much at the time, but I think I've felt a bit more concerned about the hereditary aspects of heart problems.  So the episode tends to guilt me a bit.
    Regardless, my favorite gags - Mr. McGregg, and most of the setup.  Homer eating in bed is excellent, along with his road rage at Moleman.
  

Glee - 2x05 - The Rocky Horror Glee Show

    The director decides, in an effort to impress a woman, to have the kids put on Rocky Horror.  The rest of the episode deals with a bunch of relationships, and Sue Sylvester trying to sabotage the production.
    I love Rocky Horror.  I was introduced to the show back around when I was in 3rd grade.  I had the soundtrack on cassette, and listened to it over and over.  I was actually looking on youtube for something else - the bit of Angry Dad/Homer saying "Damn, that's good!"  - when I found the audio of the Glee performance of Damnit Janet.
    I had mixed feelings about the recording.  The other songs made me feel even more conflicted.  Simply, the audio from the movie is not great quality - the songs have a bit more mud on them than modern recordings do.  Hearing the music performed so faithfully, with modern recording techniques, breathes some new life into these songs.  But then, the vocal performances often leave something to be desired.
    I bought the soundtrack EP, and I've listened to it a few times.

    I have some specific feelings about what steps were off on certain songs, but the overall impression is this - the singing just can't compare to the soundtrack versions.  Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Richard O'Brien's voices all captured the essence of their characters.  Especially Sarandon's gleeful performance on Touch-A-Touch-A Touch-A Touch Me.  In this case, I like the choreography quite a bit, but the vocal seemed like it didn't get the nature of the song.
    I'm sort of on middle ground with most of the songs.  I like being able to understand the lyrics to Hot Patootie, but I also miss the more "rock" sound of Meat Loaf's voice.
    But I have big problems with the performance of Sweet Transvestite.  Ignoring the bizarre lyric changes, the song had a remarkably compelling performance when Tim Curry did it.  In this case… it's needlessly soulful, without anything to do with the Frank N. Furter character.  There's no eroticism to the performance.

    But the episode itself was passable, but mostly forgettable.  I thought that the self-image issues brought up by having to wear minimal - or fetishistic - clothing for much of the production was an interesting idea to explore.  But sadly, the episode was too busy trying to develop a love triangle among the adults.

Chappelle's Show - 1x02

    Dave Chappelle's thoughts, sung by a white girl.  Stereotype "psychic" hotline.  "Wrap it up" box.  A crack addict visits a classroom.  Mos Def raps.
    I was a bit let down.  In most of these sketches, there were moments of brilliance, but most of them felt more obvious than I had hoped.  I wish I had more to say, but this one didn't really make me think.

Chappelle's Show - 1x01

    This show has the sketches involving a girl dancing in a car ad, a training video for "popcopy," Nat King Cole pouring champagne over a girl, the home stenographer, and the famous black white-supremacist.
    This is a solid start to the show.  Some of the bits are inspired - the girl dancing, parts of the training video.  The Home Stenographer bit feels a little like a SNL sketch to me.
    But the black white-supremacist, which takes up the last half of the episode, is really solid.  I'm not sure if there was a point in mind, or if it was simply a thought process of "wouldn't this be funny?"  The strangeness of this sequence inspires the audience to look for a racial meaning or comment, but I don't think one exists.  But because of the nature of it, it forces the audience to think.

Nightmares and Dreamscapes - 1x05 - The Road Virus Heads North

    A writer (again, Stephen King in disguise) stops by a garage sale on the way back from a conference.  He buys a painting, titled The Road Virus Heads North, which has a creepy looking person driving a car.  As he makes his trip back home, he's encouraged to get rid of the painting.  He tries several times, and each time it reappears.  The painting seems to change, making it clear that the driver is following the writer, and has killed other people that have interacted with him.
    I remembered liking this story when I read it, but now I feel like King was just phoning it in.  The story doesn't seem to have any particular depth, and it doesn't feel like he's addressing a deeper fear.
    The episode also has a few other weaknesses.  They spend a lot of time addressing how dogs are now angry/afraid of the writer.  Whenever there are traveling shots, the music seems incongruous.

Nightmares and Dreamscapes - 1x04 - The End of the Whole Mess

    Presented as a pre-death confession, this story involves curing mankind of aggressive behavior.  This, of course, results in a utopian world.  Then, in a Twilight Zone-esque twist, it turns out that the cure results in the death of all of mankind.
    I liked this one.  As I've come back to think about it more, there are a bunch of plot holes, but the idea is very satisfying.  I assumed that the ending would involve something a little more out there - like alien invaders.  It's a very sad story.

The Simpsons - 4x14 - Brother from the Same Planet

    Homer forgets to pick Bart up after soccer practice, leading Bart to take advantage of the Bigger Brothers program.  Bart has lots of fun with Tom,  an ideal father figure.  Once Homer finds out, he adopts a Little Brother, in a kid with huge eyes named Pepe.  When the pairs meet up at an aquarium show, Homer and Tom have a big fight.  Lisa has a subplot about her addiction to calling the Corey Hotline.
    I really love this episode, and there's only one passage in it that I don't like, and that's when Lisa has the tension of listening to a bunch of other noises while she's trying to not think about calling the hotline.
    But the first section of the episode is brilliant.  I love the strangeness of some of the gags - the female version of Homer driving the same car, singing I Am Woman.  The flying nun exploding in the distance.  Milhouse having the Shining moment.  Homer's Wheel Of Fortune phrase of "I'm on my way."
    The clips of the Corey hotline are fantastic as well.  Phil Hartman does a great voice for Tom, who, according to the Wiki article, was written with Tom Cruise in mind.

The Twilight Zone - 5x13 - Ring-a-Ding Girl

    An actress receives a ring from her hometown fan-club.  She sees people she knows in the ring, telling her to come home.
    So, on her way to a job, she stops by her hometown for a day.  She occasionally gets messages through her ring.  She tries to persuade the residents to go to see her perform a one-woman show at the high school, rather than go to a picnic.
    The twist is bizarre.  It turns out that she's actually on the plane, and her plane crashes into the field that the picnic was to be held on.

    I'm very familiar with the Twilight Zone.  I've seen the majority of the episodes, but this is one that I never had any interest in.  This is also one of the stranger episodes, since I felt like the twist didn't make any sense.  So is she actually existing in two places at once?  What's the point of the ring?  Is that a red herring?
    Despite this confusion, it just plays like a variation of the vanishing hitchhiker.

The Simpsons - 22x14 - Angry Dad: The Movie

    The owners of the original Angry Dad material approach Bart with the proposition to make an Angry Dad movie.  Homer voices Angry Dad.  Then Homer takes too much credit at the awards they win. 
    I've seen a lot of complaints about this episode, and there are only a few gags that I don't like.  I don't think they got Randy Newman right.  Some of the parodies go on a little longer than they should.  But it also has a single gag that I love.
    The clip of the Angry Dad Movie near the end.  Angry Dad is in a fast food place, and he's warned that there are no refills on his soda.  He gets massively huge, and stomps around a bit, walking over to a dam.  He punches a hole in the dam, and drinks all the water out.  Then he lets out "Damn, that's good!"
    I never thought of the line as a pun, but I can't get over how great the delivery of the line is.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - 1x03 - The Ticket Master

    Twilight Sparkle gets a pair of tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala.  All of her friends want to go, and they each make their case.  Then they each try to do her favors to persuade her.
    This was the first episode after the two-part pilot episode, and it was an excellent way of kicking the season off.  First, we got to see all of the characters get developed a little further.  Their reasons for wanting to attend the gala are perfectly done - they establish core traits for them.  Second, the gala is actually a plot point for the first season.  While the gala isn't mentioned too specifically in many of the episodes, it comes back in Suited For Success, and then the season ends with The Best Night Ever, which covers their experiences at the gala.
    For a kids show, this level of continuity is impressive.  I know it's not impressive for an adult show, but this is a big step in kid's entertainment.
    I didn't expect that I would like this episode as much the second time, but I did.  The episode balances out the characters well, so there was enough time with all of the characters, and no one got neglected.

Futurama - 7x04 - The Thief of Baghead

    Bender becomes a paparazzo.  This leads to him trying to take a picture of the most famous actor, Langdon Cobb, who wears a bag on his head at all times.  Once Bender gets the picture, he finds it causes those who see it to…deflate.  All of this ends with an acting contest between Cobb and Calculon.
    The simple version is that it's a good episode, but not great.  There's something horrifying about seeing the life-force leave the people who see the photograph, but there's also a lot of fun to be had in seeing Bender have fun.  Only a few nice Zoidberg moments.
    It was a real surprise to see Calculon play his scene straight, like a real actor.

Mission: Impossible - 3x11 - The Freeze

    The target is an inmate, close to release on a lesser charge, who was involved in an armored car robbery.  The statute of limitations on that robbery is running out, so the team wants to get him out of jail, and persuade him to claim the money early.
    Yeah, the premise seems like a bit of a reach.  It's not a bad plan, but it's not a great episode.
    First, they convince the mark that he's got a terminal disease.  They have the prison doctor give this news.  This provides a reason why he's getting out of jail.  But it also sparks his interest in being frozen.
    He agrees to be frozen.  He is unfrozen, and told it's 11 years later.  He eventually leaves the place they're held, and discovers that it's not 11 years later.  But a planted newspaper suggests that it is a day later than it actually is.  So he goes off to find his hidden loot.
    And you know the rest.  I felt like this plot wasn't as direct as it should have been.  The plan seems much more circuitous than other plots.  And it felt very bad that the doctor was willing to participate in lying to a patient in this way.

Ray Bradbury Theater - 3x02 - A Miracle of Rare Device

    A pair of drifters, in a strange competition with a third drifter, find a location that allows viewers to see a mirage in the distance.  They decide to try making it into a roadside attraction to make a bit of money.
    This played a lot like a Twilight Zone episode.  Something about the characters, the location, and even the message, all felt like TZ-lite.  The message seemed to be about not charging money for natural phenomena.  Started off pretty dull, but got a little more fun as the writers pushed the drama up a little.

Ray Bradbury Theater - 3x01 - The Dwarf

    Two carnival workers become aware of a dwarf that stops by a hall of mirrors each night to look at a large reflection of himself.  The female worker follows the dwarf, and discovers that he's actually a writer she admires.
    Then the rest of the episode gets a bit weird.  The other carny, the male, decides to somehow adjust all the mirrors to make it so the dwarf will only see smaller reflections.  Then the dwarf somehow reappears with a gun a shoots a bunch of them.

    It's not too bad an episode.  But I'd probably place it in the lower half of them.  While I think I get the point, I don't know if the story backed it up.

Ray Bradbury Theater - 3x12 - Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar!

    A boy places an order from the back of a small catalog for a kit to grow big mushrooms in his basement.  His father starts getting a bit paranoid after a neighbor of his starts to act paranoid himself.
    It's a very difficult story to summarize.  I was looking forward to watching this one, because I had seen the story as an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents - 5x10, under the title Special Delivery.  I saw that episode when I was very young, on vacation with a friend at Lake George.  I didn't have cable, so I was thrilled to get to see Nick At Nite.
    This version is a bit different from my memory, but it's still pretty solid.  The story fits together nicely, and doesn't confirm many suspicions.  I'd like to see the older version to see how it compares.  Regardless, you can tell it's well written, since the story sounds ludicrous when you hear about it, but it plays much more naturally when you watch it.

Falling Skies - 2x02 - Shall We Gather at the River

    The resistance is trying to make their way away from alien forces, and they need to cross a river.  All of the bridges have been destroyed, except for a single, rickety bridge, which is promptly damaged.  Tom decides that he's a risk, and gets tied up.  They destroy an alien communication spire on the other side of the river.
    While I watched this episode, I realized what it is that keeps me watching the show.  I'm curious about the alien plans.  Everything else isn't worth seeing.  I don't really even care if mankind survives on this show, they're mostly annoying.
    There's a bit of action, some gross-out work involving a little robotic bug being removed from Tom's eye.  (That may have happened last episode, but I can't remember)
    What will happen with that little robotic bug?!  What does it mean?!  Who cares?!

    And by the way, I hate this episode title.

Falling Skies - 2x01 - Worlds Apart

    About three months after the end of the first season, Tom rejoins the resistance.  The episode is a mix of the resistance trying to continue moving, and Tom's flashbacks, detailing what happened to him while in alien captivity.

    Since I haven't written about Falling Skies before, I think I need to explain my feelings about the show.  It's not a great show.  It's actually pretty bad.  But it's compelling.  And that's where the problem is; I have no idea what it is that keeps me watching it.
    I watched the first season pretty quickly.  Then after it finished, I didn't care about the cliffhanger, and I forgot about the show.  It felt like a long time before the second season got started, so I actually assumed it had been cancelled.  No big loss.
    The show is mostly a disappointment.  A decent premise, but it's not being handled well.  We get a bunch of characters that are hard to care about.  They go through emotional arcs that feel unearned.  Their efforts at hiding from the aliens seem to be minimal at best, and outrageously dumb at other times.  The writing veers into areas that make me cringe.
    But I keep coming back to it!

    This episode was a bit better than usual.  I enjoyed getting to see Tom's alien experience.  There was a bit more violence than usual, seeing a bunch of people gunned down.  The writing didn't bother me as much in this episode.
    I did have an issue with the lack of foresight that everyone seemed to have.  Tom came back from being a captive of the aliens.  It seems obvious that he should be handled carefully, and Tom himself should be aware of this, that he shouldn't be exposed to any secret plans.

    Also, every episode usually has an obstacle that the resistance has to overcome.  In this case, it has to do with the heat given off by their cars.  It's not a bad problem, but it felt like they were trying to wedge it into this episode.