Top 5 TV Episodes, August 5th-11th

 Another week, another ones of these short TV episode reviews. This time, surprisingly enough, I’m on time. Go me! Once again Skins finds itself here with its Season 7 finale (E06, Rise: Part 2), which ends Cook’s story. I don’t see how “rise” fits in this as he managed to get the loveliest girl ever killed along with her family, ends up separated with the girl he got in all that trouble for, and he’ still the same old douche he always was. Maybe because he decides to not kill Louie? Not good enough for me, sorry.

#5 – Under the Dome: S01E07 – Imperfect Circles

 I’m a little disappointed that all we got from Norrie and Joe touching the mysterious black egg who has its mini-dome and is located at the center of the Chester’s Mill Dome was a flash/hallucination of Norrie’s mother. Yet on the other hand, she (gasp) dies in that same episode. Could the two things be related? We also see a medium-pregnant (it’s not like we got to know which month she was in so we’re going with that measurement, yep) woman seeing her own husband at the other side of the dome (hallucination). Additionally, when she touches the dome the hallucinations stop, her water brakes, and Norrie’s mother gets to give birth (Barbie helps too, as he does with everything else in the city?) to the baby even though it’s early. One life lost, one life given. In general, not UtD’s best episode, but since I already watched the one from last night as well, I can tell you they’re gonna blow up the place next week. Pun intended, for those who saw last week’s episode as well.

#4 – True Blood: S06E09 – Life Matters

 And we finally get to see how all the vampires that met the true death in the compounds in Bill’s vision are saved. Obviously fairy blood is involved, which Bill has excess of so he lets everyone feed off him. A small puzzle is how Eric who had a huge head-start arrived later than Bill who was there to save them first. Not a puzzle but the most annoying this is that Sara got away, but I guess we wanted to see Jason let her go rather than kill her? I’m not sure about you, but I wanted her dead, just like Newlin died. So, now we have these vampires who are free and can walk under daylight and are also pissed off at humankind. Do I sense a blood-thirsty season finale next week?

#3 – Dexter: S08E07 – Dress Code

 A drop of two positions for our former two weeks crown-wearer. While I liked Hannah’s previous appearance on the show, this time around it seemed like too much of a soap opera. She comes back to Dexter with a husband who’s treating her bad, and she cannot get rid of him because his family will be suspicious, but Dexter can get rid of him for her and they won’t be suspicious? Sort of a hole in the plot there, as I don’t see how a person disappearing vs. dying will make the family less suspicious if Hannah gave them off bad vibes in the first place. But, all that aside, I do like the feel of domestic chaos around Dexter that seems to be this season’s point so far. He’s this cold blooded serial killer yet there’s his sister, the doctor who helped create him, the lovely neighbor, a new psycho he might be able to turn into a mini-Dexter, and his son follow in his footsteps (not the killing part, but the lying and the not being very social parts). I’m actually quite curious as to how it all wraps up seeing how the end is getting nearer and the plot seems to be getting bigger.

#2 – Suits: S03E04 – Conflict of Interest

 Firmly placed at spot #2, Suits just does not want to let go. The episode title gives it all away, I think this episode was mostly showing how people at Pearson-Darby have different interests and they’re all ready to do everything in their power to ensure theirs and not another party’s interests win. It’s also refreshing to not just have Harvey & Mike, but see some interaction between Donna & Rachel, Donna & Huntley, Louis & Jessica, Jessica & Darby, etc. In fact, Jessica vs. Darby I believe delivered the best parts of this episode. Classy and witty as always stays Suits.

#1 – Breaking Bad: S05E09 – Blood Money

A new episode for Breaking Bad, and it steals the crown right away. In fact the episode was perfectly done as a way to bring back Season 5 of the show with its additional and last eight episodes that the only thing I would change is its name. Whatever the current name is, from now on this will be known as The Tread Lightly Episode. For those who have not yet watched the episode (who hasn’t?!) that is from Walter’s reply to Hank after he tells him he no longer knows who he is — “If that’s true, if you don’t know who I am, then maybe your best course would be to tread lightly.” There are no means to describe the fierceness of this episode. There was very little of Walt Jr., Holly, and Marie (which is good). Jesse no longer trusts Walt. There was also Hank’s powerful realization scene of who Heisenberg is which was stronger than Linden’s realization of who the Pied Piper is in The Killing, yet they were of similar nature. And let’s not forget that final scene where Walt confronts Hank in his garage about the tracking device he found on his car and Hank’s reaction involves no movement at all, but simply closing the garage door. One just knows sh*t is going to hit the fan at that point!

Breaking Bad S05E09: Blood Money

Top 5 TV Episodes, 29th-4th of August

And with this, I should be caught up till this point. As intended, my weekly reviews should continue coming up on Tuesday. Consider this Saturday as a double Tuesday of some sort for now. Heh. On my cut off position once again Skins, this time around with their S07E05, Rise: Part 1 episode. This is most probably because Cook was never one of my favorite Skins characters.

#5 – The Killing: S03E11E12 – From Up Here / The Road to Hamelin

I might be ruining my experience with several shows when I set my expectations for them too high, BUT, in all honesty, how bad can you turn a two-episodes finale? Well, the Killing made it quite bad. Not the worst episodes the show has seen, but sadly they did not work well enough as season finale and left both disappointment and a huge list of question marks all around the pied piper case. In fact, if they crammed the two episodes into a single one, it would have been a decent ending, but not as it stands now. Linden realizing who the murderer is after seeing the ring on his daughter’s finger was the most powerful scene present in the hour and half we saw of the Killing last Sunday. But, more on that later in my review of the whole season (along with a 1-10 rating).

#4 – True Blood: S06E08 – Dead Meat

True Blood’s plot is all over the place, sort of like a vampire’s parts after they meet the true death. This does not mean that the show has gone bad though. Quite the contrary, True Blood’s one of the rarest TV Shows I’ve seen running with so many parallel plots but doing it fantastically. A drop of two positions this week due to no drastic changes, and Newlin and Sara being as annoying as Sookie.

#3 – Under the Dome: S01E06 – The Endless Thirst

As we already established, Under the Dome had a barely decent / kind of bad start, but as the episodes kept rolling it gradually became better and better. It is still improving, actually. This episode we saw the town’s water tower being damaged and all the water leaking out, while the town’s lake was found polluted. Quite the town crises, if it wasn’t for Big Jim finding a new water source, though it cost him dearly in the form of propane (we see how much he cares about the city). Angie’s out, thank goodness, and she’s less annoying when she’s not with Junior for some reason (but we’re glad about that reason, whatever it is). Joe is helping Norrie to find insulin for one of her mothers, while Julia and Doddee are trying to locate the power source that is causing transmission issues. Guess what the power source is? Joe and Norrie! Oh and let’s not forget Barbie being the town hero, saving Angie and generally preventing chaos around the place.

#2 – Suits: S03E03 – Unfinished Business

Two positions up this week for the glamorous drama that is Suits. Donna being half of this episode’s center was definitely a huge plus. Her flirting with Huntley was really fantastic and while it is obvious it will be a temporary thing, here’s me hoping we’ll get to see more of it. Huntley seems like a mystery factor here but as soon as he helps with the Eva case we know he’s got Harvey/Mike’s back. Harvey sticking out for Mike with Katrina seemed silly — it’s not like Mike cannot handle his battles. In fact, it only proved that Katrina’s videos where Mike is presented as Harvey’s baby, hold some truth in them. I shall not linger on that thought though, especially because I’m not sure what bigger part will Katrina play sometime in the future. Or, at least I expect her to, as otherwise she’s not really adding much to the story with her drama at this point (well, some “use” from her in this week’s episode but that one goes in my next top 5).

#1 – Dexter: S08E06 – A Little Reflection

 For the first time since I started writing these top 5 lists, we have a TV Show keeping the crown. That’s right, Dexter manages to place itself at #1 two weeks in a row. The previous week it was due to the whole “happy tree friends” feeling and how great they pulled out from the whole fiasco of Deb trying to murder both Dexter and herself with him. This time around, it is due to the whole “trouble at home” feeling. Well that, and Deb and Elway’s chemistry. Now that Dr. Vogel has helped Dexter and brought him back with Debra, maybe she feels she needs to take on another project? Zach Hamilton is her new target, who she hopes to be her new Dexter (teach him the code, yada yada). But, as it happens so, Zach might also be Dexter’s new target, except he’s not interested in teaching him in code, he’s interested in teaching him a lesson on his table while wrapped in plastic. Actually, I could rant on for quite a while on how good the episode was, but I shall only add this — it was so good I forgot I read that Hannah is supposed to return this episode so I was caught off guard when Debra started feeling bad, fell on the ground, Dexter was following her in the same position, and then she shows up all “Hi Dexter. Remember me?”

Dexter S08E06: A Little Reflection

Top 5 TV Episodes, July 22nd-28th

Alas, this is horribly late, but as the old saying goes — better late than never. This post covers the episodes that premiered during the Monday-Sunday week of July 22nd to July 28th. That week on my cut-off position can be found Skins’ S07E04, Pure: Part 2. Quite a pity that Cassie’s (Hannah Murray) story came out weak and weird and very badly handled. She was my favorite in the early seasons of the show, but this episode did not use its full potential and didn’t do justice to Hannah Murray’s charm. Though those modeling photos of her we saw in the episode were simply breath-taking.

#5 – Under the Dome: S01E05 – Blue on Blue

A drop of four positions for Under the Dome, not because it was a bad episode but because its improvement was the smallest in comparison to the other episodes I watched. In fact, this episode was better than last week’s for Under the Dome, but most shows made a huge jump.  The missile hitting the Dome was a great plus here, and especially Joe and Norrie kissing while it happens and with no resulting seizures from the touching. Oh and there was Big Jim pushing Coggins’ (the priest) head against the Dome, which kills him due to his hearing aid in the ear that touches the Dome. If it wasn’t for this annoying  person called Junior and his story with Angie I think it would have been even better. The puzzles I’m most intrigued by are Barbie’s past and Joe and Norrie.

#4 – Suits: S03E02 – I Want You to Want Me

This might have been one of my favorites non-finale episodes of Suits. It was brilliant and witty and great in every aspect, until the ending came. While a frustrated Louis seeing Mike, who had just agreed to be on his team, and Harvey reuniting their team in his office might be fun to watch, it was the obvious choice and the most predictable move ever. This might be my own wishes interfering with my judgement, but I believe if the Mike/Louis partnership idea continued at least for one more episode, it would have been a better plot twist. Nothing to add beside this, a fantastic episode overall and I think Louis has never been greater than now but alas that ending was far from my liking.

#3 – The Killing: S03E10 – Six Minutes

If there’s one thing this episode wasn’t, it is six minutes.  While the idea of Linden still trying to save Seward just 12 hours before his execution sounds like something one would want to see, going back and forth on whether he actually killed his wife or not made the whole 40+ minutes painful to watch. The high-point of the episode was definitely the ending itself, Seward being hanged and Linden sitting there waiting for the execution to end (which felt like the longest execution I’ve seen on TV, though that might be because they usually involve faster methods). Overall, I do not feel this needed a full episode as it felt super slow and made me gag quite a lot — kind of like the execution itself was. But I did like that execution and Seward made the episode watchable, plus it was better than the previous episode so two spots up for The Killing.

#2 – True Blood: S06E07 – In the Evening

One spot up for the great pile of chaos that is True Blood nowadays. There’s no way my short one-two paragraph reviews can cover up everything that happened in this episode, so we’ll go the short route of simply mentioning the best points and what made the episode so good.  Eric and Norra escaping the compound; Terry knowing about his death — so hyped to find out about this; Sara’s scene when she finds Burrell dead; Pam’s bromance with the therapist; Norra’s death. If there’s one thing that made True Blood step up the ladder this week it’s Norra’s noble death, accompanied with flashbacks from Eric’s early days of Vampirehood, and lots of prayers, requests, and tears, that fortunately do not help Norra at all. Yes, fortunately, I am glad she’s out of the picture.

#1 – Dexter: S08E05 – This Little Piggy

I take back everything I said about the ending from the previous week. It is true what they say, do not judge a book by its cover, and in this case definitely do not judge a show by a single episode. Last week ended in the worst and weirdest fashion, but all of that was forgotten because the starting scene for this week was as fantastic as it can be. Dexter and Debra sitting down in front of Dr. Vogel and discussing the fact that Debra tried to kill Dexter even if that meant she’ll die as well. Yet, as Vogel points out, she did go back to save him from the drowning car. According to her, this was Debra hitting rock bottom and as soon as that happened, she became ready to accept Dexter as he is, hence the saving. At first Dexter has lost all trust in Deb and refuses to accept her back, but once Vogel has been kidnapped by a serial killer, Yates, they’re united once again. Not only do they reunite, they become a team, sort of, and eventually the episode ends in the calmest, strongest, most psycho-moment so far. Dex, Deb, and Vogel sitting on Dexter’s Yacht after throwing Yates’ body in the water. All that’s missing is Harrison, right?

Dexter S08E05: The Little Piggy

P.S. Masuka and his daughter are a great addition to the show, but the fact that we’re nearing the end of Dexter’s days and everyone is focused on his story, kinda puts a shadow over Masuka’s story.

Top 5 TV Episodes, July 15th-21st

Since I am a bit of a TV addict and follow quite the vast amount of TV Shows, I figured what I’d do every Tuesday (because Monday is too soon and Wednesday is too far away) is do a short review of my top 5 TV episodes for the previous week. This is my first time trying this out so feel free to leave your critics and directions so I can improve these for the future weeks. And, while a highly good episode and was going to place here, Dexter’s Sunday episode had such an awful ending I decided they’ll get their shot another time. Therefore that episode is officially on my cut-off position for this week.

#5 – The Killing: S03E09 – Reckoning

I was hoping they would go with 10 episodes rather than 12 with this season. Don’t get me wrong, the show has been fantastic with the money they’ve invested, probably the best with its budget. The thing is, we already went through this whole case where they keep tagging the wrong guy all the time and obviously in the last episode the right guy will be someone who has been under our nose during the whole season but we just couldn’t see it. A lot of repetition from the first two season with this new case, otherwise The Killing seems to be reaching its highest points this season as it gets closer and closer to the season finale. Quite a shock that they killed Bullet, I would have bet she’d just be kidnapped and then Holder and Linden would rescue her at the end. Guess they aren’t going the Disney path. Does this mean that Seward will probably meet Death Row? With only 24 hours left, his time is definitely ticking away.

#4 – Skins: S07:E03 – Pure: Part 1

While this season’s episode are highly different from what we were used to with the old Skins seasons, they’ve been more than entertaining and powerful from the three episodes we’ve had so far. Cassie’s story seems slightly weaker than Effy’s, but not to take it for granted we’ve only seen the first part (for the review, anyway, part 2 aired last night). You have to love Hannah Murray though, and it is definitely all in her spirit — you can almost feel how they’ve got to this point in their lives based on where they started and what we saw in the previous seasons. I’ll have to do some digging on this but I believe Effy, Cassie, and Cook are the only 3 characters getting their own story told with these episodes (obviously we see some of the other characters, but not from their point-of-view)? Pity, that looks like it will be a short, though fantastic, season.

#3 – True Blood: S06E06 – Don’t You Feel Me

While Sookie somehow still manages to get on my nerves in every darn episode, the show itself is like wine, getting better with each passing episode. I can honestly say after last season’s finale, I knew I was either gonna love it or hate it from that point on. The finale was a huge turning point for the show’s plot with a lot of drastic changes and quite a few new characters (and some old characters with new characters inside their body). I was partially expecting it to turn into a complete fiasco of a soap opera where you have no idea what’s going on. Yet somehow, they’ve managed to stay on top and improve as they go.  While they will still need to wrap up this whole mess without screwing up the show, I think the great first half of the season proved they can definitely do that. Now if they iron out things with Warlow, the Governor, and Lilith (through Bill), this will definitely be their best season so far.

#2 – Suits: S03E01 – The Arrangement

I’ve been waiting for this for quite a while, and based on the trailers that were posted, I knew it was going to place somewhere high. Suits returns with a blast — wittier and funnier than ever before, while still keeping it classy and dazzling. New cases, new drama, new twists in the now-know-as Pearson-Darby family. The first episode in this season definitely promises a lot for the rest of the season, and its looking like it’ll be even better than the second season (which was better than the first season). Suits keep going up, but how long can they go before Mike Ross’ secret is exposed? And with the Harvey-Jessica war that seems to be stirring up, will Mike be able to regain Harvey’s trust on time to aid him in it? Only one way to found out.

#1 – Under the Dome: S01E04 – The Outbreak

Yes this is still new to TV with only 4 episodes so far and definitely would not make the top of any list yet, please bear with me as I explain my reasoning behind it. There was a lot of hype whether this show will be a masterpiece of a masterful screw up. Based on the works of Stephen King promises a lot, but were the cast and the directors ready to deliver something fantastic? I’ve been following up user comments on IMDB ever since the show started, and there were a lot of mixed comments. But, what caught my eye was the comments on why the show sucks so far were pretty much valid. No trouble in paradise even when they’re stuck under this gigantic extraterrestrial dome and are cut off from the rest of our planet while no one can explain it? No issues whatsoever or panicking or questions being asked by the population under the dome? Those were all good questions, up till this episode as it answered them all. If I hadn’t known that they film the seasons in advance, I’d think they filmed the episode to answer all the user criticizing it. Come back next week to see if they’ll keep #1 based on their episode last night!

Under the Dome S01E04: The Outbreak