Star Trek: The Next Generation - 5x04 - Silicon Avatar

    Some of the crew are helping some people work on building a settlement on a planet, when the planet is attacked by the crystalline entity.  Most of the settlers and the crew survive the attack by hiding in a cave, where the entity seems to be unable to reach them.  An expert on the entity comes to interview the survivors.  She distrusts Data because he has survived contact with the entity a few times, and her son died on the planet that Data was created on.
    This was a good episode.  It doesn't start too well, since we get a bit of Riker hitting on some settler.  And it isn't very clear how satisfying the direction of the episode will be.  It's always uncomfortable to see characters being mean to Data.
    There are a few common threads to an earlier episode - In Theory.  Both this episode and that one dealt with characters trying to put deeper feelings into Data than were appropriate, and feeling bad as a result of the act.
    What makes this episode work is the end of it.  There's some hammy bits as Picard is amazed that they are communicating with the entity.  But when we see the entity destroyed as a result of Marr's actions, it's clear that she was out of line.  Since we aren't going to get to see her get into deeper trouble, it's a dark ending for Data to tell her that her son would not be made happy by her actions.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - 5x03 - Ensign Ro

    After a Federation outpost is destroyed, and one species claims responsibility for the attack.  Picard is called upon by an Admiral to find the terrorists, and bring the one responsible back to his proper place.  To assist with the mission, the Admiral assigns a poorly regarded former Starfleet officer, Ro Laren.  Picard's investigation of the situation suggests that there is more than had been offered to him.
    This episode was more serious than most of the well-regarded episodes, but it's actually pretty good.  It's easy to dislike Ensign Ro from her poor behavior, especially early in the episode, but we learn to like her, along with Picard.  This also handles Picard in a much more fatherly way.  He is tough, but fair, and he's willing to use the Enterprise's resources to help the settlement he visits.
    I also liked how the story played out.  We know that there's something more underhanded going on, but it isn't clear what it is.  Again, we learn about it as Picard does.  It's pleasing to see a story develop this way, instead of artificially timing the reveals.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - 5x02 - Darmok

    The Enterprise goes to work on establishing relations with another alien species.  All prior attempts have been friendly, but they can't communicate.  Things seem to be heading the same way.  Then the aliens transport their captain and Picard to the surface of the planet nearby, where the pair of them wander around, and are eventually attacked by some weird invisible creature.  Picard eventually figures out how the other captain communicates.  They talk by using metaphors from their cultural history.
    This is a fun episode, and it's memorable.  But it is honestly one of the least believable premises they've used.  Most of the outlandish Trek plots can be excused, since they use science as a story device.  In this case, the aliens using metaphors to communicate is just completely absurd.  Some ideas can be communicated this way.  But the system is absurdly inefficient for explaining complex ideas.  How did these aliens ever build a spaceship?  I'd expect a language like this for Jar Jar.  Not for a Trek universe species.

The Simpsons - 22x11 - Flaming Moe

    Smithers and Moe team up to turn Moe's into a more accepting gay bar - one that doesn't exclude the less attractive gay patrons.  The problem is that the patrons think that Moe is one of them.  In the meantime, after Mr. Largo leaves Springfield Elementary, a substitute music teacher is brought in, Ms. Juniper.  She's kind of a hippie, and Skinner gets into her free spirited nature.
    I know I've watched this episode at least once before, probably twice, and I know I enjoyed it.  This time, I still liked it, but I felt a little like the jokes were a little too stereotypical.  I think that's intentional though, since most of the joke is about how little Moe understands gays and gay culture.
    I don't care for the Skinner plot, although it has a few nice moments.  Ms. Juniper's daughter is very fun, and it's good to see Bart try to be nice to someone as peculiar as her.  And I like seeing Skinner having confidence.  The misdirection with Chalmers is great.

Family Guy - 11x06 - Lois Comes Out of Her Shell

    After Peter makes Lois feel old and unattractive, she decides to act young, and turns into a party girl.  Stewie finds a pet turtle, who turns out to be evil.
    I haven't bothered watching Family Guy much, (as this blog makes obvious) but there was a fairly positive review of this episode, and the idea of the turtle was very interesting.  And I was fairly happy with this episode.
    Honestly, I think that Family Guy has gone the way of South Park.  They have this strange nihilist sensibility, which I normally love.  But the problem is that they are irresponsible with their point of view.  Family Guy doesn't bother me in the same way though - they seem just a bit more lazy than anything else.  Sometimes they stretch the formulas, and I can appreciate that.
    But I think it's a bit like Zappa's music.  In some cases, you have to be familiar with the norms in order to nuke them.
    I didn't care as much about the A story.  I like seeing that Peter and Lois are a mostly normal couple, but it just didn't matter much.  I did enjoy the turtle story though.  It's tricky to make a turtle menacing, although the show went further than it should have.  It was much funnier to try to figure out how the turtle did things.

Death Note - 1x04 - Pursuit

    Light comes up with a plan to find out the identity of the person who has been following him.  He orchestrates an event for his shadow to follow him on a date, eventually leading to the shadow revealing himself to be Raye Penber, an FBI agent.
    I thought this was easily the most solidly plotted episode so far.  Light has tested the limits of how much control he has over the deaths he dictates.  His plan is interesting, and it plays out as he expects.  Of course, it would be more interesting if he had to work around some unforeseeable problem, but this is still very nicely handled.

Death Note - 1x03 - Dealings

    It is revealed that the officer in charge of finding Kira is actually Light's father.  After Light finds out that the police suspect that the killer is a student, he changes his patterns to kill criminals on the hour.  Shortly afterward, Light finds that he's being followed, but doesn't know who is doing it.  Ryuk offers to make a deal with Light - Light can gain the eyes of a shinigami, in exchange for half of his remaining lifespan.
    There isn't as much plotting in this episode, but the developments were nice.  Mostly, I liked getting a clearer explanation of what Ryuk is.  While he's described as a shinigami, they also translate this as "death god."  He's a god that is supposed to user people into death.  This is good to know.  At first, I thought he was supposed to be some sort of demon.
    It's interesting that they ended the episode on the offer, but without any resolution.
    Also, they use photographs in the animation.  Sometimes, it's an establishing shot, sometimes, it seems to just be elements of the frame - like a stop light or something like that.  It's a bit jarring, but it actually makes the production look a little cheaper.  Plus, some of the animations of people talking remind me of G.I. Joe.

Death Note - 1x02 - Confrontation

    The authorities have put together that someone is behind all of the criminals suffering unexpected heart attacks.  An anonymous detective is assigned to the case, someone who uses the name L.  Light sees a broadcast where L reveals himself to the world, and takes the opportunity to kill him with the notebook.  After the person dies, it's revealed that the person who announced this was a criminal, and they've just proven that Light (although he is known online as "Kira") is able to kill at a distance.  L also reveals that the broadcast he was watching was only shown in a particular district.  So they've narrowed down his location substantially.
    For a very light plot, it moved along very well.  Plus, an additional rule is revealed - anyone else who touches the notebook will be able to see the otherworldly creature that follows Light around.  In order to defend against this, Light actually puts together a pretty ingenious trap in his drawer.
    The moral and ethical implications of the story have started to get more interesting.  Light is clearly too cocky about his power.  But he's still pretty bright, and he seems to not be entirely ruthless with his power.  But there's still the implication that he might be.

Death Note - 1x01 - Rebirth

    A high school student named Light finds a peculiar notebook.  It specifies that anyone whose name is written in it will die of a heart attack, unless the death is otherwise specified.  He also learns that the original owner of the notebook was some sort of otherworldly creature named Ryuk.  Light explains that he plans on eliminating criminals, and thus take it over.
    This is the first anime that I've been able to sit through, and I think this is a fairly interesting one.  The premise is interesting, although it doesn't seem like the sort of plot that would be able to sustain for a whole series.  The story is more straightforward than I expected.  There wasn't as much nonsensical development as I was expecting.
    The animation style is interesting.  It's clearly a bit cheaper than the type I'm used to, but they get around those weaknesses by using the camera in some clever ways.  There's a lot more shaking and other movement of the camera to compensate for the lack of actual animation going on.
    Also, the subtitles are fantastic.  The show has been dubbed in English, and there are English subtitles.  Except that they clearly are translated by different people.

Seinfeld - 6x09 - The Secretary

    George hires a secretary, and decides to go with an unattractive woman, so that he can focus on work.  Kramer gets Uma Thurman's number, sells his suit to Kenny Bania, Elaine deals with a store that uses "skinny mirrors."
    I watched this episode mostly to show Cathy the George plot, partly because his secretary is named Ada.
    This episode doesn't have a broad scope, and it seems to take place over the course of about a day or two.  Everyone has something to do, but there aren't many gags that stand out.  Except, of course, George's affair with his secretary.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - 3x04 - One Bad Apple

    The Apple family has a relative from Manehattan come to visit.  Babs is roughly the same age as Apple Bloom, and also doesn't have her cutie mark.  So the Cutie Mark Crusaders try to invite her into their club.  When the mean girls from their grade stop by to make fun of them, Babs joins up with the bad girls, and picks on the other girls.
    I've never been a huge fan of the Cutie Mark Crusader episodes.  This one isn't horrible, but it's also not especially strong.  Most of the main characters have very little to do, except for Applejack.  At least the wedged a bit of Pinkie Pie into the story, which was some fun stuff.
    The real highlight is a much more rocking song in the show.  It doesn't sound quite like the normal work from Daniel Ingram, but it grew on me by the end of it.
    I didn't like the voice that Babs had.  They gave her an attempted NY accent, but it just came across as annoying.  And something didn't seem right about the ending.  They give a reason for Babs being a jerk, but that doesn't exactly excuse her behavior. 

The Simpsons - 18x19 - Crook and Ladder

    After Homer puts most of the fire department in the hospital, he volunteers to replace them, along with Moe, Principal Skinner, and Apu.  They get caught up in the habit of stealing, or being rewarded for their work.
    This is a middling episode.  There are plenty of enjoyable parts, but the episode never really reaches into the level of hilarity that we expect from The Simpsons.  I just flipped through the episode again to make sure.  The first half of the episode is actually better than the second half.  The gags about Marge wanting to take away the pacifier are better, as well as Homer's whole sleepwalking thing.  Once he becomes a fireman, meh, it's funny, but I rarely broke into a laugh.  The gags a bit more predictable.

American Dad - 8x04 - American Stepdad

    When Stan's stepfather dies, his mother moves in.  This means that Roger has to move out of the attic.  Roger comes up with an identity, and gets married to Stan's mother.    Meanwhile, Steve and his friends come across an airplane crash, and find a copy of a script for Fast & Furious 7.
    I didn't care too much about all of the stepfather/stepson bonding stuff, but this episode featured a lot of surreal visual gags.  Rolling out of one side of the frame to enter on the opposite side.  Recursive visuals, like looking at a picture of something, zooming out to see the same picture.  These gags are hard to explain, but when you see them, they are amazing to see them pulled off.
    I actually liked Stan's story a lot.  I think I saw the first Fast & Furious movie.  I don't remember anything about it.  But I loved the way that this fictional script was written.  And I found the homoeroticism of car racing to be a fantastic angle.  And the visual gag with the studio executive was just wonderfully bizarre.

The Simpsons - 24x05 - Penny Wiseguys

     A new character is introduced, who is the accountant for Fat Tony's mob.  Tony has to do jury duty, and this guy is put in charge.  Since Tony wants him to cut the budget, this involves possibly killing some of the mobsters.  Homer helps out in preventing the accountant from doing this.  Meanwhile, Lisa is introduced to eating insects for protein.
    This is seriously one of the strangest episodes that The Simpsons has ever done.  And they've done some strange things.  The live-action guest star with Katy Perry and Simpsons puppets?  This is weirdest episode in terms of structure.  The episode centers almost exclusively on this new character.  Homer's role is mostly trivial.  Lisa's B-story is amusing, but it seems like more of an effort to pad out the running time.
    As a standard sitcom episode, there's nothing wrong with this one.  But as a Simpsons episode, I fail to see how it qualifies.  It's more like another show with a Simpsons cameo.
    The one thing I liked was Homer's delivery of the line "I'll fix that later."  It sounded simultaneously exhausted and determined.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - 5x01 - Redemption Part 2

    Picard makes some efforts to persuade the Federation to play a role in preventing Romulan interference in the Klingon struggles for power.  Picard's plan is to cast a field that would give away if any Romulan ships are running supplies.  In the meantime, the two Klingon factions are still fighting, and Worf is hanging out with his brother and the new head of the Klingon empire.  Tasha Yar's daughter (played by the same actress) shows up as the Romulan aiding the Klingons.
    This is a step up from the last episode, but it has some massive weaknesses.  Particularly, it suffers from Ronald D. Moore's style of writing.  He loves dramatic sequences, and he's willing to sacrifice character in order to play out a scene with the action and tension he wants.  In this case, there are two major points that he gets wrong.
    First, the idea of the fleet of Federation ships casting a "net" is perfectly fine - except that they're doing it in space.  This net would make sense if they were surrounding a location, like a planet, or a ship.  The fact that they're blocking a path in space is weird.  Do ships not move up and down in space?  There's no reason given why the Romulan craft couldn't just go around their net, especially since they recognized it was there.
    The second misstep was the storyline with Data.  He's put in charge of another ship.  The first officer doesn't like working under an Android.  Data acknowledges this, and denies his petition to leave the position.  Then, during the standoff, Data doesn't let anyone know what he's doing, and gets angry (!) at the officer for questioning his orders.  This makes Data both a jerk, and not much of a leader.  And he's showing pretty obvious emotion, which really seems conspicuous.
    The bit with Tasha Yar's daughter is kind of an interesting idea, since it ties back to Yesterday's Enterprise.

    But this wasn't particularly great.  There's some nicely dramatic stuff, and a bit more action than usual, but by the end of it, it didn't seem like anything really was at stake.

The Simpsons - 17x05 - Marge's Son Poisoning

    At the closing of a boardwalk amusement park, Homer buys a dumbbell, and exercises one arm until it's huge.  Moe uses him to arm wrestle in order to win bets.  Marge buys a tandem bike.  Bart feels sorry for her loneliness, and starts biking with her to a tea house.
    I don't feel like I can give a fair evaluation of this episode.  For some reason, I've seen the first half of it several times, but I don't think I had ever seen the second half.  I liked Homer's plot.  I'm a fan of variations in the character design, like the arm.  Bart's story was a bit more awkward.  I don't care much about the relationship between Bart and Marge, but I usually don't object to them.  In this case, it seemed like a bit of a stretch to get Bart into tea service setups.
    I think I liked the karaoke stuff.  But the use of that plot to make Marge re-evaluate their relationship also seemed stretched.
    Finally, the music in the episode was strange.  I liked Skinner and Agnes singing Ebony and Ivory.  I didn't like Bart and Marge singing Sweet Home Alabama (although that could be because of my distaste for the song).  Finally, when the bullies announce that they were going to sing My Sharona, I was really excited about that.  When we finally see it, it's more dull than it should be.
    Still, watching this was like seeing a long-lost episode….because it was.  I've seen every episode, usually several times.  To find one that I don't know well is very surprising.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - 4x26 - Redemption Part 1

    Picard is continuing his duties to name the next leader of the Klingon High Council.  Worf gets involved in an effort to clear his family name.  There are two competing houses looking to take control of the Klingon empire, and Picard is trying to avoid getting the Federation involved in a war.
    I still don't like all of the Klingon political stuff.  It's never as horrible as I think it will be.  And this episode is written by Ronald D. Moore!  How could it be bad.
    It's not exactly bad, but it isn't all that great either.  I liked the scene between Picard and the two Klingon women.  But there's this absurd, overly dramatic approach to these episodes, where everyone talks slowly, and with as much gravitas as possible.  As as result, I think around 18 minutes in, I was checking the timer.
    At least the episode has a pretty good cliffhanger - Worf resigns from Starfleet, we get a nice sendoff, and we see the Romulan version of Tasha Yar.  So those are pretty interesting developments.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - 3x03 - Too Many Pinkie Pies

    Pinkie's enthusiasm for doing everything possible with her friends leads her to use a strange pond to create copies of herself, so she can spend time with everyone.
    This episode was custom built to please me.  I really like Pinkie, and I absolutely love humor based around duplicates of people.  (There's a fantastic episode of Harvey Birdman that meets this criteria as well)
    I was really impressed with how gradually the story ramped up.  It takes a little while for the first duplicate be created.  Then it takes a bit longer for the additional copies to show up.  Then the episode is thrown into chaos for awhile.
    The difference between the original Pinkie and the duplicates is interesting.  The copies seem to have all of her normal enthusiasm and personality, but they don't seem to have her knowledge.  They all have a focus on having fun.
    The ending is a tiny bit dark - the copies are returned to "where they came from" as they slip up on a test to find which is the original.  Something seems a little violent about this.
    The pacing on the episode is really wild, and Pinkie has tons of stuff going on.  I have a hard time believing that a kid would be able to appreciate this in anything near the same way.

    It was also fantastic to see Pinkie change her face into an earlier generation pony.  Kind of creepy.

The Big Bang Theory - 6x08 - The 43 Peculiarity

    Howard and Raj are curious about where Sheldon disappears to for 20 minutes in the afternoon.  Leonard is a bit threatened by Penny doing a school assignment with another guy.
    It's a light episode, but it wasn't bad.  There was some over-the-top comedy near the end, with Sheldon hijacking the video feed for Howard and Raj's spy cam.  I've enjoyed seeing Sheldon's assistant flirting with Leonard, since he deserves someone better than Penny.
    The only real development that they did in this episode was Penny inadvertently including that she loves Leonard.

Bob's Burgers - 1x10 - Burger Wars

    Bob's landlord has an offer from Jimmy Pesto to take over Bob's lease.  Bob needs to come up with the rent money by the end of the week, or he loses the lease.
    Almost every time I read a plot summary of one of these episodes, it doesn't sound like it would be good.  But this episode was really good.  In fact, my only reservation about it was that the ending seemed a little too neatly tied up.
    The show found the groove it needed to.  Louise still yells a lot, but she doesn't seem quite as cruel as she did at first.  Gene seems actually a little endearing, with his desire to entertain.  And Tina's plot is still a joy.  She wants to slow dance with Jimmy Pesto, Jr.  He's going through a slow dance phase, something that doesn't exactly make sense, but in the context of this episode, it works.  Getting to see the strange animation of Tina dancing is great.  It's just as awkward as it should be.
    The plot moves fast, and it doesn't linger on the dead weight of the episode - like Linda, or even the peculiarities of Louise and the smaller Pesto twins.  This isn't to say that those ideas are bad.  They actually play very well, since they are kept to the right balance.

American Dad - 8x03 - Can I Be Frank With You?

    Francine is annoyed that Stan spends time with a bunch of guys on certain days.  She decides to disguise herself as a man, and spend time with Stan undercover.  Steve has a boy band, which gets rolled into a huge boy band.
    Again, the B story outshines the A story.  But in this case, the A story was still pretty good.  There were a few inspired gags, including the incredibly long fart gag.  The sausage gag was fantastic, and was only made better by Patrick Stewart's incredible work.
    But the B story is just such a great idea.  I'd rather that they spent a whole episode working on this premise.  Steve is part of a boy band called Boyz 12.  We only get to see one video that they make, which is such a joy to behold.  I've watched it several times.  To be honest, I didn't care for the ending of this plot, since it seemed like they were just a little desperate to tie off the story.

The Simpsons - 24x04 - Gone Abie Gone

    After Homer misses his usual monthly visit to his father, Abe goes missing.  After rooting around in his stuff for a bit, they follow a lead and learn that Abe got remarried after Mona left.
    I don't want to say this was a bad episode.  There were some good laughs, and I never felt like it was doing something really wrong.  But this episode was really weak.  The B story was much better - Homer wins $5,000.00 in a lawsuit, and sets it aside for Lisa's college fund.  Lisa starts playing online poker with the money.  That story was much more fun.
    Maybe I just don't care enough about Grandpa to make any of the stories that center on him worthwhile.  I don't think I identify with Grandpa - or with Homer's relationship with him.
    So, this was a bit of a disappointment.

The Big Bang Theory - 6x07 - The Habitation Configuration

    Amy gets mad at Sheldon after he doesn't side with her when she picks on Wil Wheaton.  Bernadette pressures Howard to move his stuff out of his mom's house.
    I liked some of the things in this episode - it's a pleasure to see Wil Wheaton.  And Sheldon got some good fun in.  Penny was just annoying.
    I was pretty thoroughly bothered that no one seemed to point out that Amy was being a jerk.  Her complaints about Wil Wheaton seem to be based on jealousy or something, but she's way out of line.
    And I didn't really care about Howard and Bernadette's story.
    I was thrilled to see LeVar Burton's appearance on the show.  That's three of the main cast down!  I wonder if they'll get Patrick Stewart eventually...

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - 3x01-3x02 - The Crystal Empire, Parts 1 & 2

    Twilight is tasked with helping Cadence and Shining Armor save the Crystal Empire.  This involves going to a land no one knows anything about, and figuring out how to strengthen their defenses.
    I've been looking forward to the 3rd season for awhile.  And I'm really, really looking forward to the next episode - Pinkie Pie clones herself!  But this two-parter was really pretty good.  In fact, I'd rank it above the two parter that closed out last season.
    I have a few mild complaints.  I don't think I care for using Cadence and Shining Armor again so soon.  The characters don't have too much to offer.  I thought that Rainbow Dash wasn't acting normal during this episode.  And I have one technical complaint - during the bit where Twilight has her 'nightmare' about Princess Celestia failing her, there's an establishing shot of Canterlot.  This is an effort to lie to the viewer.  I don't think I would care about it, except that it was clear that it wasn't a real event.  I also kind of wish that we would get to see Fluttershy beat Rainbow Dash at the joust.
    But there's a lot of good stuff going on in the episode.  Everything Pinkie does is great - especially her disguise as Fluttershy.  The songs aren't spectacular, but they are good.  And the episode gets a song to close out the episode in a very satisfactory way.
    It's a strong opening for the third season.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - 4x25 - In Theory

    One of Data's co-workers decides she wants to have a romantic relationship with him.  The Enterprise is investigating a nebula, which involves some weird stuff happening on the ship.
    I remember liking this episode, at least a long time ago, because it was a Data-heavy story.  But I also remembered it being very awkward.  Luckily, I was mistaken.  It still is a bit awkward, but not as bad as I thought it would be.  What makes the story work is that Data is entirely honest prior to beginning the relationship.  He makes his limitations clear.  He talks with lots of the crew, including a great one-liner from Picard.  No one seems to make an effort to persuade him not to indulge her.
    At least she's not a jerk about not getting the type of person he made it clear that he is.

    The other plot is really strange.  There are some weird spots in this nebula that displace the matter that passes through it.  So, occasionally, a piece of the Enterprise - or objects within - will move locations.  This eventually results in the death of a crew member, who dies in a strange, creepy way.

    The biggest problem with this episode is that the plots don't have anything to do with each other.  This makes the episode seem a little forced.
    Interestingly, this was the first episode directed by Patrick Stewart!  And there are several mistakes with Data using contractions.  Thanks, Wiki!

The Simpsons - 24x04 - Adventures In Baby Getting

    Marge decides that she's defined by being a mother, so she wants to have another child.  Homer doesn't want to, but can't bring himself to tell her.  Since he's infertile because of the power plant, they go to a sperm bank where he made several deposits.
    This had some good jokes, but it wasn't as great as it should have been.  I liked the first act quite a bit - the sinkhole, filling it in with Springfield's tire fire… that's some good stuff.
    And there were plenty of really great signs, and great store names later in the episode.
    But the real highlight for me was seeing all of the Homer inspired children at the end.
    Something about the story seems like a story we've already seen on the show.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - 1x23 - The Cutie Mark Chronicles

    The three younger ponies (Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo) are still trying to get their cutie marks.  They decide that they need to ask Rainbow Dash how she got her mark.  As they try to find her, they run into the rest of the main characters, and hear their stories of how they got their marks.
    I don't care too much for the younger characters, but this episode did a good job of bridging the characters a bit.  We get flashbacks for all of the characters, as well as new locations.  All of this builds characters a whole lot.
    Two characters get shortchanged a little.  Applejack's story isn't especially interesting, and neither is Rarity's, but since we cover six short stories, plus a framing device, having a lackluster story isn't a terrible thing.
    Twilight gets one of the more important stories, since it makes her powers more expressly incredible.  Plus it serves as an origin for Spike.  Pinkie Pie gets one of the most compelling stories, and some of the best animation for the episode.
    It's also a noteworthy episode because the stories tie together really nicely.  It never feels forced.

The Walking Dead - 2x13 - Beside the Dying Fire

    A herd of dead swarm onto the farm.  After some efforts to defend it, the survivors are scattered, and most of them meet back up.  The group camps out in the open for the evening, while Rick asserts his leadership.
    Damn, this episode is the best one, by far.  At least most of the time.  The first half hour of this episode is fantastic.  The first fifteen minutes is solid action, and very well done.  We get a sense of what every character is doing.  There aren't really fast cuts.  The tension is high, and it isn't clear how it will all play out.  It's very cathartic to see most of the cast reunite in the morning.
    Then once Rick has to admit to what happened, and that he killed Shane, the episode goes downhill.  Rick's speech is good enough, but Lori's response to it is ridiculous.  She doesn't seem to appreciate the danger that Rick was in, and for some reason, she seems very upset that Carl shot dead Shane.
    Rick also tells the rest of the people that everyone is infected.  The message of this is that if you die, you reanimate.  For some reason, Glenn and Carol are offended that they weren't told about this.  While it's good to know, it hardly seems like a reason to be angry with Rick.
    Then Rick gets a lengthy fireside talk, where he asserts that they're free to go, if they want to, but that he's the one keeping the group safe.  He includes the line that this is "no longer a democracy."  This is more aggressive than Rick usually would be.  And I expect him to be a more benevolent leader.

    Andrea seemed to spend the whole day running from the dead, and periodically turning around to kill a few more of them.  She's clearly exhausted.  Luckily, she's saved at the last moment by Michonne.  It's nice to have her added to the roster.  And I actually felt more strongly that Andrea was closer to her comic-book equivalent.

    So, I'm very happy with this episode overall, and I'll probably re-watch it sometime soonish.  I think Cathy should see this one.

The Simpsons - 16x05 - Fat Man and Little Boy

    After Bart loses his last baby tooth, he feels grown up.  He starts writing t-shirts to express his newfound cynicism.  His line of shirts is picked up by an eccentric Wonka-esque guy.  Homer leaves his job at the power plant to live off of Bart's income.  Since Homer's role has been changed, he hangs out with Lisa, turning his scale model of a power plant into a working model.
    This episode is a bit aimless, but very enjoyable.  Bart's shirts are great.  My favorite bit is his fantasies involving his Sgt. Activity figures and insurance coverage.
    I don't think there's a deeper message to the story, and it certainly isn't especially touching.  But it's solid, paced well, and has plenty of funny moments.

The Walking Dead - 2x12 - Better Angels

    Dale is buried, and the group pulls together.  Rick finalizes his plan for getting rid of Randall in a humane way.  Shane and Lori have a talk, which leads him to decide that he needs to take action.  So Shane comes up with a plan to kill Rick to usurp his position as leader.
    I really liked how this episode started off.  The whole crew is working together.  People get their assignments, and there's much more of a sense of everyone helping each other out.  Hershel is actually a good person at this point.  I don't think it makes much sense for people to be so aggressive to each other.  When there aren't many people left, you'd be interested in having as many allies as possible.
    So it takes awhile for the episode to take shape.  Most of the episode is about Shane having a hard time submitting to being under Rick's authority.  He behaves fine, but clearly resents it.  Shane's plan for dealing with it is actually pretty clever, although he seems to be getting more and more unbalanced as the episode progresses.
    I suppose the show has been making regular hints that Shane is deteriorating, but it seems more pronounced at this point.  Maybe if it had ramped up, instead of just being periodic reminders.  It's been a long time since he aimed his gun at Rick, which I would consider to be more menacing than their fight back in 18 Miles Out.
    The change from the comics is substantial - in this case, Rick stabs Shane, then Carl shoots the dead Shane.  In the comics, Shane is holding Rick at gunpoint, and Carl shoots Shane.  I have some speculation that they didn't want Carl to be seen shooting a live person, but they wanted to accomplish a similar sense of guilt - and that's why they had him feel responsible for Dale's death in the previous episode.
    Despite Shane being one of the best drawn characters of the show, I'm glad that he's gone.  I felt like they were drawing out his presence more than they should have.

The Walking Dead - 2x11 - Judge, Jury, Executioner

    Daryl beats the survivor who helped Rick and Shane escape last episode, in an effort to get more information from him.  Rick tells the group that he agrees, they can't afford to let this guy free.  Dale is unhappy with this, and asks that he be given some time to persuade the rest of the group that they can't afford to lose their humanity.  In the meantime, Carl is having some issues.
    I'll address a considerably spoiler point later in this post.

    I'm a bit conflicted about this episode.  It was structured nicely, with Carl having more of a story, and it tied together nicely with the main story.  What I didn't like was the opening scene of Daryl beating Randall, the survivor from the other group.  While Randall isn't developed, it seemed like Daryl wasn't thinking through his actions.  It just reinforced that Daryl isn't terribly bright about how to go about gathering information.
    But this episode mostly focused on Dale and his efforts to persuade the rest of the group.  He gets plenty to do in the episode, and he does a better job here than he has before.
    He's a very frustrating character, particularly in this episode.  I would normally agree with his arguments in this episode, but he delivers them in a way that is hard to back up.  And he proceeds to ignore the counter-arguments.  Combined, this makes him seem like a kid.
    The episode ends with Dale dying.  It's by a dead, which Carl can feel at least a little responsible for letting loose.  Dale was one of my favorites in the comic, but his behavior in this show makes him nearly intolerable.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - 4x24 - The Mind's Eye

    Geordi is on a shuttle, off to his vacation.  He is captured by Romulans, who go through the process of brainwashing him to act as an assassin.  Meanwhile, the Enterprise is off investigating accusations that the Federation is aiding some secessionist rebels who want to leave the Klingon Empire.  Obviously, both of these plots tie together closely.
    This was a type of episode I normally wouldn't like.  I don't care much for the relations between Kingons, Romulans, and the Federation.  But this episode was much better than I expected.  While it seems like it would play out as a standard brainwashed assassin story, they added a late-game twist, and the questions about how things were going to play out never stopped.
    The story is also vague about exactly what kind of role Geordi is playing during the episode.  It isn't clear if he is aware of his actions, or if he is just going through motions that he doesn't understand.
    I had one complaint about the episode, and that was Geordi's visor-vision.  This made no sense at all.  His perception of the environment was just absurd.

Bob's Burgers - 1x09 - Spaghetti Western and Meatballs

    Bob and Gene start watching spaghetti westerns together at night,  This puts Louise out, who usually shared the time with Bob.  Linda is catering a conflict resolution dinner.  Tina is involved in the conflict resolution club.  All of this comes together.
    A harder episode to summarize without spoiling all of it.  There were a few things I liked a lot - everything Tina related, of course.  Louise is also being developed much better in a story like this, where her love for her family shines through.  And even Gene is getting some good work done, but their time at school seems really surreal.  I can't tell what kind of grade he's supposed to be in, or if he's in special ed classes or what.
    The family seems strangely tight-knit, except for Linda, who always seems to be at odds with the rest of the family.
    I liked the way that Tina's arms were drawn when she was fighting.

Bob's Burgers - 1x08 - Art Crawl

    There's an art crawl in the neighborhood, and one of Linda's relatives decides to display her artwork in the restaurant.  It features a variety of animals displaying their anuses.  Once a chairperson of the art crawl bans the paintings, Bob gets unhappy, and forces the display.  In the meantime, Louise is getting Tina and Gene to work on their own artwork, to take advantage of people being willing to buy bad art.
    It didn't sound like a premise that I'd like, but I was very happy with this episode.  Louise wasn't as evil as she's been.  Bob seemed to be better balanced, and the story jumped around quickly enough.
    And I'm completely amazed that they were able to show that many anuses.

The Big Bang Theory - 6x06 - The Extract Obliteration

    Penny is taking a history class, and Leonard is excited about this, and wants to help her.  Sheldon is playing a game of Words With Friends with Stephen Hawking.
    This was a very unfocused episode, but it remained more pleasantly playful than most of the episodes are.  The one thing that really bothered me was when Penny returned to rub her B- in Leonard's face.  Her impersonation of him was absurdly childish, and just reinforced that Leonard deserves someone better.
    But the point at which the plots collide was a very good scene.  It's gimmicky, but it plays out in perfect rhythm.  Leonard and Sheldon both want to talk about their problems, but neither of them care about the other.  So Leonard pulls a chess timer for each of them to talk, and get advice from the other.  Of course, Sheldon is a jerk about this as well.

The Walking Dead - 2x10 - 18 Miles Out

    Rick and Shane take the survivor from last episode on a long drive, where they plan on leaving him to fend for himself.  Rick stops the car on the way out, and has a talk with Shane, where he asserts his authority in leading the group, and explains that he knows about Shane sleeping with Lori.  When they try to leave the survivor, the guy announces that he knows Maggie.  This makes them concerned.  Shane wants to kill him right away, and Rick wants to sleep on it and figure out what the best thing to do is.  They fight.  Their fight attracts the dead.  In the meantime, Beth has indicated that she wants to commit suicide.  Lori gets worked up about this, and passes the problem on to Maggie to work on.

    It's nice to see a character arc for Rick take form.  This is the most assertive he's been so far, and it's nice to see him being willing to stand up to Shane.  When he talks to him at the crossroads, I liked that Shane was hanging his head, and was clearly feeling kind of angry and shameful.
    And Lori… man.  While she's been a bit of a joke in this show, this episode first did something good, by making her do something out of concern for another person.  Then she completely ruins it by being an outrageous jerk to Andrea.  I feel like her approach to the situation would warrant kicking her out of the group.  She doesn't appreciate being protected.
    It's interesting to see Rick and Shane fight.  Shane has had his muscles pronounced throughout the series, while Rick is usually minimized.  It doesn't seem like it would be a fair fight, but they seemed to be reasonably matched.
    Of course, by the end of the episode, there hasn't been much development.  Still, the amount of action in this episode was a little higher than it has been.

The Walking Dead - 2x09 - Triggerfinger

    Rick, Glenn, and Hershel are all still at the bar, where they're trying to deal with a group of survivors that are attacking.  Lori wakes up from her accident, and eventually is found by Shane.  In escaping the town, Rick and company save a guy who was injured, and bring him back to camp to get fixed up.
    While this episode starts off well, the second half of it slows down a lot.  We get a bunch of scenes of Lori being scared of Shane's behavior.  Mostly, by being warned by Dale, now Lori has started to be more nervous about what he does.
    Mostly, everyone seems to be a bit insecure in this episode, except Shane, who is still convinced that he's right.  I did like that Andrea gave him reasonable advice.  Making it clear that Shane is doing the right thing, but he's not being persuasive about it.
    There have been a few scenes over the last two episodes which deal with Carol and Daryl.  Daryl suddenly is left without a plot to follow without Sophia to look for.  Carol no longer has a motivating force either.  In a strange way, I'd like to see the two of them become a couple.
    This is also the last episode that I've already seen.  The rest of this season is new to me.

    I've also been holding onto this thought in the meantime.  The picture quality of this show has gone downhill.  The first season looked great on Blu-ray.  This season looks overly grainy, the colors seem more washed out than usual.

The Walking Dead - 2x08 - Nebraska

    With the barn emptied, some of the dead are buried.  Hershel announces that he wants them - or at least Shane - off the property.  Beth (who hasn't done anything in the show) goes into shock, and Hershel has disappeared.  Rick and Glenn go into town to find Hershel.  Rick, Hershel and Glenn encounter a pair of guys.
    One small thing I noticed that I didn't like, and that's that Glenn and Rick aren't wearing seatbelts on their drive.  I could understand this if they knew they had to get out in a hurry, but it seems needlessly dangerous.
    This episode also has a fantastically hilarious bit, which helps to define Lori as being completely useless.  She manages to flip her car over, driving by herself, during daylight, with no other cars on the road.  This isn't a person who is in control of herself.
    While much of the episode is taken up with fairly dull musings about how to keep motivated to keep living in this scenario, the last scene, in the bar, is really one of the better scenes they've had so far.  There's a tension, and we get a clear sense of the real menace these strangers pose.  Plus, it raises a few questions about how trustworthy anyone they meet can be.