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TV: Other Shows:Monk - "Mr. Monk and The End"
Monk was never much more than a perfectly pleasant show, but, in the end, that was probably enough for its millions of fans. When it first came on the air in 2002, as Alan Sepinwall has pointed out , the series was basically doing something the ...
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Comedy
Monk
ABC
TV: Dollhouse:"The Public Eye"/ "The Left Hand"
Welcome back! After a Dollhouse -free sweeps month in November, the show has returned with back-to-back episodes for three straight Fridays—a bounty for you and a torment for yours truly. (Though I like the continuity of digging into multiple ...
TV: Star Trek:"Spock's Brain"/"The Enterprise Incident"
It used to be tough to be a geek. Oh, don't get me wrong, it still basically is--both in the biting-heads-off-chickens sense and the social outcast with a tendency to obsess over intellectual (aka, "non-sexy") pursuits sense. But these days, whether ...
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Other
TV: FlashForward:A561984
Here's the thing about FlashForward . This would have been a pretty awesome episode of television if it were not an episode of FlashForward . If it were an episode of a show that had taken the time to slowly unravel its main character or an episode ...
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Sci-Fi
Flash Forward
TV: Community:"Politics of Human Sexuality"
It's only been two weeks, but it feels like Community 's been away a lot longer. And it's not like I particularly missed the show last Thursday. I mean, I love it, but I love eating much more (who doesn't?). Still, the fact that it feels like this ...
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Comedy
Community
TV: 30 Rock:"DEALBREAKERS TALK SHOW #0001"
Tonight’s episode of 30 Rock found the gang over at The Girly Show With Tracy Jordan indulging in a personality version of musical chairs. Frank morphed into Liz after taking over her job while she worked on the thankfully doomed pilot for ...
TV: It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia:"Mac and Charlie Write a Movie"
Sunny checked another item off the list of “Philadelphia things it needs to spoof” tonight with a rather batty extended M. Night Shyamalan spoof episode. There were crazy twists, shocking violence and a lot of mentions of Dolph Lundgren. One fatal ...
TV: The Office:"Scott's Tots"
One of the things that makes Michael Scott so likeable despite his never-ending parade of faux pas, buffoonery and bad ideas is that he often does the wrong things for the right reasons. Sort of. In tonight’s kick-ass episode of The Office, Michael ...
TV: Fringe:“Snakehead”
Look at that grinning bastard up there. So confident. So independent. Did you know he’s cooking his own meals now, and choosing his own clothes? And if you happen to be a person with Lovecraftian tentacles wriggling out of your gaping maw, who would ...
TV: Parks and Recreation:"The Fourth Floor"
The sign of a lasting comedy show is when it's able to maintain its tone when venturing into darker territory. Though it's not a guaranteed laugh-a-minute place to take a show, tackling some of these bigger character issues pays off huge in the ...
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Other
TV: Friday Night Lights:"The Son"
When you lose someone close to you, no one knows what to do. There are plenty of pat, socially accepted responses depending on the person who has died—“They’re in a better place” or, in the case of tonight’s Friday Night Lights , “They died for their ...
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Drama
Friday Night Lights
TV: Other Shows:Steven Seagal Lawman
I really, really, really want to give Steven Seagal Lawman an A+. But that wouldn't really be "accurate" because the Steven Seagal Lawman I'd give an A+ doesn't actually exist and is, instead, a show that I came up with in my head as I was ...
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Other
Steven Seagal
TV: Glee:"Mattress"
Back when I first started writing up this here colossal mess of a television program, I advanced the thesis that Glee is basically a sad show that's covering up that sadness with a happy smile. I believe I said it was a whole television series ...
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Comedy
Glee
TV: Top Chef:"Season Finale, Part 1"
[Important and exciting programming note: Instead of going the usual post-episode recap, myself and a host of A.V. Club Top Chef watchers are going to liveblog the finale. Amelie Gillette did this with Project Runway a few weeks ago via the ...
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Reality
Top Chef
Project Runway
TV: So You Think You Can Dance:Week six results
After last season, which saw one promising dancer eliminated before her time (Janette) and one kept on way past his sell-by date (Evan), I’ve grown a little wary about the SYTYCD voting contingent—a complaint that is completely negated by the fact ...
TV: Sons of Anarchy:"Na Triobloidi"
The problem is, somebody always has to die. These are violent men and women leading violent lives, and it would be lying to have them escape every catastrophe unmarked. Drama demands blood, and hell, so do we. But since Sons of Anarchy is an ...
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Other
Back In
TV: So You Think You Can Dance:The Top 10 Perform
I can sympathize with the injury-plagued top ten this week. My ankle is elevated after swelling up due to a little sports injury of my own. That's going to affect my pirouettes and acrobatics this week, but I'll try not to let it affect my recapping ...
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Other
TV: Other Shows:Scrubs - "Our First Day Of School"/"Our Drunk Friend"
These episodes air tonight on ABC, 9pm EST/8pm CST
Since it premiered right on through to its bittersweet coulda-been-the-series finale, I've always loved Scrubs and held a huge amount of respect for Bill Lawrence, its creator. The show not only ...
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Comedy
ABC
Scrubs
TV: Other Shows:Find My Family
Warning: Much of the below drifts into territory closer to a personal essay. I review Find My Family in the end, but if you want the brief hit, look at the grade. That pretty much says it all.
The title Find My Family is a command. It's an ...
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Other
TV: Gossip Girl:"Treasure Of Serena Madre"
As NPR’s Nate Dimeo observed in May, the current Golden Age of serialized television has also brought us into the Golden Age of the preshow recap. What were once hastily stitched-together highlight reels are now an essential piece to watching a show ...
TV: Heroes:"The Fifth Stage"
So it seems this is how Heroes does a pay-off episode: Get out as much information as you can about things viewers have seen a mile away. Tonight marks the exit of Adrian Pasdar as Nathan Petrelli, but c'mon. We all knew it was going to happen as ...
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Sci-Fi
Heroes
Get Out!
TV: House:"Wilson"
Of all the various couples six seasons of House have shown us, House and Wilson has always made the most sense. I don't mean romantically--there's no sexual chemistry between the two, beyond that basic TV assumption that any two characters with ...
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Drama
House
Rainn Wilson
TV: Dexter:"Lost Boys"
Dexter is always at its best when it feels like it's headed somewhere momentous. The first few episodes of this season, particularly the ones that were showing us Trinity's methodical killing patterns, had a bit of this feeling, but since then, the ...
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Drama
Dexter
John Lithgow
TV: The Simpsons, The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, American Dad:"Rednecks and Broomsticks"/"From Bed to Worse"/"Dog Gone"/"G-String Circus"
I was actually rather surprised to learn that the animation domination shows were all new this evening. Sitting out the Sunday after Thanksgiving is a grand TV tradition, and even though most of the other networks were new, I kind of thought Fox would ...
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Animation
Family Guy
The Cleveland Show
The Simpsons
TV: Glee:"Hairography"
Even the best TV shows occasionally find themselves wandering into a terrible storyline or two. Every so often, Landry is killing a man, the Earps are hanging out in Deadwood, or Kim Bauer is threatened by a cougar. In some ways, it's easy to make a ...
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Drama
Deadwood
TV: Modern Family:"Fizbo"
My best birthday party ever was when I was six or seven years old. My mother and grandmother transformed our entire basement into the Emerald City from The Wizard of Oz , completed with handpainted yellow brick road. I will never give my kids a ...
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Other
TV: So You Think You Can Dance:Week Five results
Oh, it's seriously on -- now that the couples are doing two dances, and simultaneously are about to break up! I won't miss the terminal cuteness of Mollee and Nathan (the couple that gave me the sugar diabetes), and I'm going to be hoping for a ...
TV: Sons of Anarchy:"Culling"
"Culling," the penultimate episode of this season of Sons , opens with the members of SAMCRO circling the wagons and getting ready for the rain. It's an exciting sequence, not so much because of any tension from what we actually see--everything goes ...
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Other
TV: So You Think You Can Dance:The top 12 perform
“For a choreographer the dancers are the paint…. You used your paint really smart and really beautifully.” —Adam Shankman, wise sage.
Too often there’s a disconnect between the choreography and the dancers executing that choreography on So You Think ...
TV: V:"It's Only The Beginning"
So, uh, remember all that stuff I said last week dismissing the cable news interpretation that the V lizard aliens=Obama? Well, maybe not. The final episode of V that we get this year kinda gave the viewer something to think about, as well as ...
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Other
TV: The Big Bang Theory:"The Vengeance Formulation"
"The Vengeance Formulation" might be my favorite Big Bang Theory so far this season. It didn't have any single plotline that was as sustained in hilarity as last week's Sheldon and Penny extravaganza, but both plotlines were warmly funny, both ...
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Comedy
The Big Bang Theory
TV: Heroes:"Thanksgiving"
Nothing advances the story in Heroes like the time between episodes—at least it feels that way, especially when the characters begin each one by explaining what's gone down in the interim and what's about to happen next. It must be amazing to be ...
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Sci-Fi
Heroes
TV: House:"Ignorance Is Bliss"
The previews for this week's episode, "Ignorance Is Bliss," had me nervous. Of everything that frustrates me about what House has become, the one thing I'm least able to tolerate is the back-and-forth between House and Cuddy--for reasons that I've ...
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Drama
House
TV: How I Met Your Mother:"Slapsgiving 2: Revenge Of The Slap"
You're setting yourself up for failure if you bill your Thanksgiving episode as a sequel to one of the most beloved episodes of the series. And for most of tonight's "Slapsgiving 2: Port of Call New Orleans," the failure is real. It's all delayed ...
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Comedy
Revenge
Lily Tomlin
Ted Danson
TV: The Simpsons, The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, American Dad:"Pranks and Greens"/"A Brown Thanksgiving"/"Jerome Is the New Black"/"My Morning Straitjacket"
It was an evening of odd characters wandering into the lives of our favorite Fox animated characters, of new mentors and crazy friends. It was also an evening of half-hearted social messages, occasional holiday references and assorted speeches about ...
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Animation
Jack Black
Family Guy
The Cleveland Show
The Simpsons
Blair Brown
TV: Dexter:"Hungry Man"
So, listen, Dexter fans. That episode was a big step up from the last couple of go nowhere bore fests, but that final twist was completely ludicrous. When some of you were saying in comments how obvious it was that the reporter was behind the ...
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Drama
Dexter
TV: Other Shows:"Metalocalypse: Dethhealth"
Hi ho, regular jackoffs! If you're reading this, you're probably one of the people who's asked us to do regular coverage of Brendon Small & Tommy Blacha's totally metal animated sitcom Metalocalypse . We're not quite there yet, but we figured that ...
TV: The Venture Bros.:"Self-Medication"
The "let's begin in the middle of a standard-seeming action sequence" opening is a much-loved Venture Bros. standard by now, and "Self-Medication" goes at it with the gusto you'd expect. The doc is being menaced by the Monarch and his floating ...
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Other
TV: Curb Your Enthusiasm:"Seinfeld"
"We don't do endings like that. It's all bullshit. What couples get together at the end?"
I don't mean to be hyperbolic, but I'm pretty sure Larry David made the universe fold in on itself tonight. More specifically, he made the Curb universe and ...
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Other
Larry David
Jerry Seinfeld
TV: Other Shows:Sit Down, Shut Up: "High School Musical Musical"
Because I used to cover the Fox Sunday Animation block—which Todd VanDerWerff has been doing quite splendidly—my DVR is still set to record all the shows. And even though I had read the news that episodes of Sit Down, Shut Up were going to be burned ...
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Other
High School Musical
Alisen Down
Sit Down, Shut Up
TV: Saturday Night Live:Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Dave Matthews Band
Best episode ever?
Of the season, I mean. I had a feeling ahead of time that Joseph Gordon-Levitt could pull off a good show--I liked him on 3rd Rock from the Sun and if, as a kid, he could be funny next to French Stewart (and I guess, John ...
Tags:
Comedy
Dave Matthews Band
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
John Lithgow
Saturday Night Live
Make 'Em Laugh
TV: Community:"Environmental Science"
As it wraps up its appearances in November sweeps, Community is really on a roll. That's, by my count, four straight really good episodes, with at least three of them being all-time keepers (especially last week's terrific half hour). The series ...
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Comedy
Community
TV: 30 Rock:"Sun Tea"
Hello, 30 Rockers ! My name is Steve, and I’ll be covering the show tonight for The T.V. Club. I realize coming here and getting me rather than Nathan Rabin is like tuning in to Pardon The Interruption for the entertaining repartee of Tony ...
TV: It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia:"The D.E.N.N.I.S. System"
“The D.E.N.N.I.S. System” was a little lighter on laughs than last week but had an amusingly intricate plot (something that’s rare for Sunny ), and a fantastic, disgusting denouement (something that’s very common, but always very welcome). Best of ...
TV: Fringe:“August”
Because I work at home, by myself, I spend some portion of each day roaming around the house talking and/or singing in a funny voice. I also spend some portion of each day locked inside my head, in pained reflection, recalling something stupid I said ...
TV: Supernatural:"Abandon All Hope"
Hey, remember Ellen and Jo, the only two non-dead recurring non-evil female characters on the show? Remember how they disappeared for a while, but then came back for this season, and it was like, we're gonna be fighting against Lucifer, so we gotta ...
Tags:
Sci-Fi
Hope Davis
Supernatural
TV: Project Runway:"Finale: Part 2"
Will Carol-Hannah stop puking in time to make it to Bryant Park? Will Irina slaughter a couple of minks at the last minute to up the luxe factor of her upscale loungewear collection? Will Althea develop a design aesthetic besides "eh wear"? Can this ...
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Other
TV: The Office:"Shareholder Meeting"
Hello, Office ianados! Nathan Rabin, well-selling author and man about town, is off leading the lifestyle of a jet-setting ne'er-do-well, so it again falls to me to recap this week's escapades at the possibly insolvent Dunder-Mifflin. This episode ...
TV: FlashForward:"Believe"
Maybe we should only be watching FlashForward in the odd-numbered episodes because after last week's complete snore, "Believe" was quite possibly the show's finest hour yet. It probably doesn't quite deserve an A-, but I believe in using these ...
Tags:
Sci-Fi
Flash Forward
TV: Parks and Recreation:"Hunting Trip"
A few weeks back, Leonard Pierce was covering this show for TV Club and made note that the Fred Armisen episode lacked the strength of Parks & Rec 's supporting cast. Tonight we saw the other end of the spectrum. Even though every single cast member ...
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