Perhaps to help organize my TV blogging, I figure I should introduce another weekly feature to cover the breadth of TV on Tuesday evenings. This particular feature might be a bit slow-moving once one of the shows goes on Hiatus, but I can pick up another one or two if necessary to flesh things out. And yes, fancy writing denotes a society.
Gilmore Girls – “I am Kayak, Hear Me Roar!”
Not a show to let the happy train leave the station too soon, Gilmore Girls once again found itself a few problems to deal with as it heads into the end of what could be its last season. While the end result of things (Luke and Lorelai being together, Rory and Logan being together, etc.) is quite clear, it’s also clear that it’s going to take us awhile to get there.
On the Rory and Logan front, we’ve got Logan being screwed over on his patent deal, perhaps losing all of his trust fund. I think a Logan no longer tied to his father’s existence would be in the show’s best interest at this point; it’s clear that he struggles to remove himself from his father’s shadow, what better way to do so than to make Logan financially dependent on Rory? They’ll be remotely happier without Mitchum in their lives. It seems bad now, but this will end up a positive methinks.
The situation with the elder Gilmores, however, is quite foreboding. The drama at the Gilmore household was very well handled, ranging from Richard’s frustration with Emily’s helplessness. Emily relationship with Lorelai has always been tenuous, but her motherly advice while drunk was touching. By the same account, her anger in the morning was realistic. The characters were handled well, and things are back to the status quo.
This status quo allows us to head back to Stars Hollow for some Baby Showers, and likely some Luke and Lorelai drama, next week. With 7 episodes to go, time is running up for their relationship to come to fruition.
American Idol – The Top 12 Guys
Lesson learned: guys can’t sing. I don’t know what’s in the water, but it’s clear at this point that the guys are in a bit of trouble when it comes to the Top 12. Sure, Chris the JT look-a-like will get female votes, and there will certainly be a fair deal of support for some of the other male candidates, but no one stepped up to really impress us, the viewers who aren’t in it for the hunk factor.
The biggest problem is that every single performance was the typical Top 24 performance; overly obvious attempts to appear energetic or physically emotive, song choices picked for tempo and not for quality, and a lack of anything that would risk elimination.
At this point, the person who needs to go home is Sundance. While he did give a good first audition, he has sucked too long to be given another chance by the viewing audience. His song selection just wasn’t good enough, his performance was far too boring, and holding out ones arms does not equal a performance.
I think I’m rooting for Chris Sligh, at this point. While his performance I would classify as just average, his pre-performance comments made me far too happy. From his anger regarding Sweet Home Alabama, to his bashing of “Do I Make You Proud?”, Chris represents the type of cynical contestant that this show has needed for quite some time now. He’s the one person who stands out at this point, at least until the Girls take the stage tomorrow.
Veronica Mars – “Mars, Bars”
Veronica wasn’t behind bars for long, really. In what was one of the most stocked episodes of the show in quite some time, we had a death, a rather substantial revelation in the case of Dean O’Dell’s murder, a healthy dose of supporting players, and plenty of story and characters shifts that will have certain ramifications for both the Arc finale next week and the five standalone episodes starting in April.
First, to the death. Sheriff Lamb was always a standout character, and was finally given regular status for this season. You could almost tell something was up for the character when he was actually doing the right thing, listening to Keith about investigating the Dean’s murder. Sure, in the end his death was precipitated when he shot himself in the mirror, but he died more honourable than he’s appeared in weeks. He’ll be missed, there’s no doubt about it.
The case of the week, continuing from last, came to a fairly good conclusion. Veronica gets out of jail, abets the innocent son whose father had someone kill him in order to let the family gain the insurance money, and voila. More importantly, however, is the break in the Dean O’Dell case (broken by Veronica when she realizes that the show the witness watched was pre-empted, I love the nod to the show’s own pre-emption). We learned that Landry is a possibly suspect, but I only hope that next week’s episode isn’t too predictable after this revelation.
However, while all of this was going on, we got a nice little diversion in the form of a Valentine’s scavenger hunt. Mac and Bronson consummating their relationship is really hard to not cheer for, considering her woes in the past, and the Logan/Parker situation is really quite interesting. I think it helps in putting Veronica into not so happy a position, and complications are good at this stage. It all seemed a bit out of place from the rest of the episode, but I think it worked as a C-Plot.
However, the end of the episode brought the true change for the series. The return of Sheriff Mars is a huge shift, should it continue into the five standalone episodes after this arc concludes. It gives Keith a weekly purpose, and it puts Veronica’s role into jeopardy slightly. No longer her father’s assistant, she’ll be focused entirely on her own mysteries; the whole thing will play out extremely well, I think, and should at least give us a final five episodes of awesomeness come April.
Cultural Learnings 