Chuck 511 Review- For Canada!

Casey- "I need you. My daughter needs you. And your country needs you."

Lester- "Canada?"

Whether it be Chuck, Morgan, Sarah, or any number of others who have had the intersect inside their brain over the course of these past five years, the individual with it has always shown flashes of brilliance in the field.

Chuck could be described similarly; a series that has shown flashes of brilliance if not an all and all ingenious show.

This fifth and final season, however, has been nothing of the like, as "Chuck Versus the Bullet Train" was another fantastic hour in a long line of purposeful, poignant, funny, action packed, and heartwarming episodes.

Over the years, Chuck has been sort of hit or miss in writing for Jeff and Lester. In giving these two characters not only a specific plan of action in the final season, but an important one, they solidified a historically inconsistent pair as an interesting and fun aspect of the final run.

Ever since Awesome convinced Jeff to stop sleeping in his car - way back in "Chuck vs. the Frosted Tips" - these two have been on a journey that for all intents and purposes culminated this week by having them save the day, and finally told the truth about all of the spy stuff going on around them.

To read the rest of my review of last night's Chuck, head over to TV Fanatic.

Chuck 511 - "Chuck Versus the Bullet Train"
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The Office 812 Review- Nobody Calls Me Chicken Fight

Val- "Does Daryl not swim?"

Kevin- "That's racist!"

There were bits and pieces of each story that worked in "Pool Party," but neither Robert's stroll through parties never had, nor Erin's endeavor to make Andy jealous, came together to make completely funny or interesting tales.

What we were left with was yet another decent episode of The Office in which there were a number on things to laugh at... in which one couldn't help but feel it lacked th humor and creativity of what the series used to be.

The one piece to the puzzle that worked really well was Dwight and Erin completely getting after it in their attempt to make Andy jealous. The receptionist going 110% in the final game of chicken, squeezing Dwight's neck until he became unconscious and in danger of drowning, might have been what the writers thought would be the icing on the cake.

Instead, it served as a letdown, an unfunny ending to an otherwise hilarious pairing I never would have imagined. When Dwight puts his mind to something that is outside his normal range of actions, it's usually comical. In this case, him flirting with Erin - whether it be sexy eating, telling Andy he's gonna go crazy on her with sex, or saying to Erin "I could just bang you right now" in hopes of Andy hearing him - was easily the best part of the episode.

To read the rest of my review of last night's The Office, head over to TV Fanatic.

The Office 812 - "Pool Party"
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30 Rock 602 Review- I'm In Chinatown Baby

Jenna- "Imagine what the internet would do with this. Maroney found in closet with unconscious married man and inbred virgin...again!?!?"

"Idiots Are People Two" was another funny installment of 30 Rock's sixth season, but it failed to work as well as the premiere due to a retread of the same old Liz's weird boyfriend storyline, and the confusing appearance of Kelsey Grammer.

Honestly, haven't we seen this a thousand times on 30 Rock? Liz has a boyfriend who has a bunch of strange quirks, and eventually she figures it out and drops him. Sure, The Floydster and Carol Burnett were close to normal, but those are the exceptions to the rule.

Watching Liz nitpick over her significant other's blatantly weird behavior has never really been that funny, so watching her imagine Jack's doing the same thing was less than humorous. It was just weird. I know complaining about weird on 30 Rock is unheard of, but this just didn't seem to fit.

Then there was the return of Kelsey Grammer, playing himself, which was completely out of left field. Let's cut to Kelsey at a makeshift casino where he makes strange statements with James Bond-like music!

To read the rest of my review of last night's 30 Rock, head over to TV Fanatic.

30 Rock 602 - "Idiots Are People Two!"
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One Tree Hill 902 Review- Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Alex- "Don't you need some actors or maybe a writer?"

Julian- "Uh, I had both of those things and she wanted to be a musician."

One Tree Hill continued its stellar start to season nine with an episode not as epic in nature as the premiere, but just as emotional, and - thanks to the appearance of Chuck Scolnik - maybe more hilarious.

Because they use song titles for episode titles on One Tree Hill, sometimes it's a stretch to connect the dots between the single and the content. That wasn't the case with "In The Room Where You Sleep," as it became clear early on that the location of where a number of characters would be laying their heads in the near future would be a theme of the hour.

Alex and Chase, who I have loved separately and together since each arrived in Tree Hill, took some major steps forward and then, just maybe, a giant step back.

First of all, it was a ballsy move by Chase to just go ahead and move all of her stuff into his place. On the one hand, if she's down for it, it could be seen as completely romantic. On the other, if she's unsure of herself like Alex seemed to be, it could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

To read the rest of my review of last night's One Tree Hill, head over to TV Fanatic.

One Tree Hill 902 - "In The Room Where You Sleep"
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Justified 301 Review- Ice Pick Your Poison

Boyd- "Raylan, if a book could only be judged by its cover, you'd be a best seller."

Competing with last year's magnificent second season - which I named the best show of 2011 - isn't going to be an easy task, but "The Gunfighter" gave Justified a great start to season three, delivering an abundance of potential for interesting stories down the road.

As great as Margo Martindale was as Mags Bennett last year, and as fun as Walton Goggins is to watch as the sometimes-a-friend/sometimes-a-foe Boyd Crowder, Timothy Olyphant is the glue that holds this cowboy masterpiece together.

Although the season premiere essentially picked up three weeks after the traumatic events of "Bloody Harlan," Raylan had yet to recover from his gunshot wound, which created a couple of new situations for the U.S. Marshal.

Sure, he was still as sarcastically charming as ever in comparing Winona decorating his place to putting lipstick on a platypus, or contemplating the idea of naming his future child Jiffy Pop or Palmolive, but Raylan couldn't run, he couldn't shoot and he was sidelined on some events he normally wouldn't be.

To read the rest of my review of the Justified season premiere, head over to TV Fanatic.

Justified 301 - "The Gunfighter"
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Chuck 510 Review- Bo Knows Espionage

Morgan- "I acted out physically, too, and I rocked Bo Derek's world."

There was nothing spooky about this Friday the 13th episode of Chuck. There was, however, a lot to enjoy in "Chuck Versus Bo," including my favorite song of all time, the return of the frosted tips, and the appearance of apparent actress turned super spy Bo Derek.

Most importantly, though, it ended with yet another character inheriting the intersect. In my interview with her on Tuesday, Yvonne Strahovski teased that there would be conflict between Sarah and Chuck before the end. I guess this event is what will lead to said conflict.

Could anyone in their right mind blame Sarah for the decision she made? It was either download the intersect, or allow herself and Casey to die by the guns of yet another uber-villain out to get the intersect himself. She had to do it. Her already super spy skills combined with the intersect kung fu made it a breeze to get away from the dozen henchmen with guns pointing straight at her.

The question remains, how will THIS intersect affect Sarah. They all work in different ways, so this one might not necessarily do to Sarah what the last one did to Morgan. With only three episodes remaining in the series, I don't think it's going to take her as long as it did Morgan to make a decision about it.

To read the rest of my review of last night's Chuck, head over to TV Fanatic.

Chuck 510 - "Chuck vs. Bo"
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The Office 811 Review- What Is SEE-attle?

Dwight- "You're a perfectly fine toilet. I'm just an extraordinary piece of crap."

Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad. In The Office's first episode of 2012, the titular storyline of the gang playing "Trivia" in Philadelphia worked really well, but the forced trio in Florida definitely did not.

That's not to say that there was nothing to laugh at, as Dwight stormed Sabre headquarters to get a managerial position with Dunder Mifflin's parent company. Mr. Schrute's jumping fist pump as he walked the hall to Robert's office was among the best moments.

Gabe comparing himself to a toilet was also one of the more clever lines of the night, but the entire situation just felt forced. We've seen Dwight act like this before... and then he always just returns to being a great salesman.

I'm not one to complain about lack of growth in a sitcom character, but if the repetitive nature of said character's actions reduces the hilarity of our beloved Dwight Schrute, it's not a good thing. Combine that tiresome activity with an individual who has yet to find his footing in Robert California, and we were left with a "B" story that didn't quite work.

To read the rest of my review of last night's The Office, head over to TV Fanatic.

The Office 611 - "Trivia"
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30 Rock 601 Review- Jenna's Hangin' Out With McEnroe

Jenna- "Emma that was pretty good. You were trying to get me to commit suicide, right?"

Tracy was still acting out for attention, Jenna was still doing whatever it takes to get more rich and famous and Kenneth was still putting all of his beliefs into something bigger than himself - but the return of 30 Rock felt different than the status quo.

If I hadn't chuckled once during the half hour, "Dance Like Nobody's Watching" still would have been a great episode of television. That's not something you normally say about 30 Rock. It's there to be silly and make the viewer laugh out loud, not to simply be a interesting story about characters we enjoy.

That's what this sixth season premiere pulled off, though. It was pleasant to sit through, and interesting to watch what the characters - especially Liz - were up to.

In the past, Liz's story might have ended with her actually being a crack whore, or taking some weird drug to help her deal with Tracy. Instead, Tracy and Jack figured out that she was just enjoying her life, dancing like a weird dance team in Madison Square Garden.

To read the rest of my review of last night's return of 30 Rock, head over to TV Fanatic.

30 Rock 601 - "Dance Like Nobody's Watching"
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