There was no Iron Man or Hulk. No Hawkeye or Thor. Yet Marvel still made its mark on the television world tonight, as Agents of SHIELD premiered to very strong critical reviews. The series appears to possess everything a fan of this universe could demand: There was action (the introduction of Grant, the concluding stand-off with Michael); there was mystery (where was Coulston this whole time? How was he brought back to life? Why is Melinda May hesitant to get into battle?); there was humor ( sounds like someone to make S.H.I.E.L.D. an acronym !). The overall dialogue felt fresh and snappy, which is all we’d ever expect from Joss Whedon, who wrote and directed the pilot. Will that continue now that Whedon has moved on to other projects and will not be in charge of running this series on a weekly basis? That’s a question for another day. For Marvel fans, the episode referenced the “Extremes” technology made famous in Iron Man 3 , giving us an idea of how it will remain loosely connected to the wildly popular movie franchise, while still remaining its own entity. But there’s something here for non-comic fans as well. The mere concept of a group of humans cleaning up after superheroes is intriguing. Even if the show turns out to be a basic procedural disguised as something more, due to its affiliation with Marvel, that’s perfectly okay. Look at NCIS . There’s plenty of room for witty banter and entertainment in a procedural. Will you be sticking around Level 7 to see where this all goes? Are you all aboard the crazy plane? Sound off below with your thoughts on the Agents of SHIELD premiere and grade it now: A B C D F View Poll »
It seems like only yesterday we fell in love with a serial killer named Dexter Morgan and now we’ve watched those sensuous opening credits roll for a final time. Ahhh. Dexter Morgan. The smirk. The pink shirts. The biceps. What a SKILF. I mean. Wait. What was I doing again? Oh, right. The Dexter finale. We’re recapping it here, but be sure to head over to TV Fanatic for the full Dexter series finale review . He Said, She Said: On the ride to the hospital, Deb tells Quinn she’s done some pretty bad things. He says that by being a cop, she gets to do good things to make up for whatever it is she did. She says she needs to save a busload of nuns. He thinks back to his schoolboy days and says “don’t save ’em.” Terminal: When Hannah gets stranded in the bathroom at the airport, Dexter plants a suspicious bag and blames it on Elway. Elway gets taken for questioning and Hannah can escape the loo, but Dexter’s plan grounds their flight. Big Brother: Dexter gets the call that Deb is in the hospital after being shot by Saxon. Once she’s out of surgery, she tells him to go to Argentina to be with Hannah and Harrison. He follows her F-bomb laden orders. Sort of. He sends Harrison off with Hannah and plans to meet up with them. He also gives Hannah a bag of “essentials.” Then he goes off in search of Saxon. Terminator : Saxon, like a terminator, walks around Miami with a bullet wound. In the middle of hurricane prep. And no one seems to notice that he’s bleeding all over everything. He gets a veterinarian to stitch him up then, in what might be the grossest thing on the show ever, cuts out the vet’s tongue so he can sneak into the hospital to finish what he started with Deb. But Miami Metro busts him. Surprise, motherf***er! Bad News Bears: Dexter and Quinn learn that Debra isn’t so okay after all. She’s in a vegetative state. Quinn believes in miracles. Dexter does not. A Little Jab’ll Do Ya: Dexter dons his Miami Metro badge and gets access to Saxon’s holding cell. He lays out the tools in his test kit and eventually kills Saxon with a ballpoint pen to the jugular. And people think penmanship is dead! Psha! Another Little Jab’ll Do Ya: Elway catches up to Hannah and Harrison on a bus headed toward Daytona. Hannah uses one of Dexter’s super special horse tranquilizers to knock Elway out so that she and Harrison can escape. The Perfect Storm: Dexter goes to the hospital and, in the chaos from the hurricane, turns off Debra’s life support. He tells Harrison he loves him just before he dumps Deb’s body in the ocean like the Bay Harbor Butcher he is. Then he drives the Slice of Life directly into the hurricane. Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina: Hannah reads the news of Dexter’s “death” on her iPad while sipping an espresso in a cafe with Harrison. She sheds a single tear before taking Harrison out for ice cream. Just Jack: While those he loved (loves?) go on living without him, Dexter lives a solitary life as a lumberjack. At least we know he’ll still have his biceps, right? What grade would you give the series finale of Dexter? A B C D F View Poll »
It seems like only yesterday we fell in love with a serial killer named Dexter Morgan and now we’ve watched those sensuous opening credits roll for a final time. Ahhh. Dexter Morgan. The smirk. The pink shirts. The biceps. What a SKILF. I mean. Wait. What was I doing again? Oh, right. The Dexter finale. We’re recapping it here, but be sure to head over to TV Fanatic for the full Dexter series finale review . He Said, She Said: On the ride to the hospital, Deb tells Quinn she’s done some pretty bad things. He says that by being a cop, she gets to do good things to make up for whatever it is she did. She says she needs to save a busload of nuns. He thinks back to his schoolboy days and says “don’t save ’em.” Terminal: When Hannah gets stranded in the bathroom at the airport, Dexter plants a suspicious bag and blames it on Elway. Elway gets taken for questioning and Hannah can escape the loo, but Dexter’s plan grounds their flight. Big Brother: Dexter gets the call that Deb is in the hospital after being shot by Saxon. Once she’s out of surgery, she tells him to go to Argentina to be with Hannah and Harrison. He follows her F-bomb laden orders. Sort of. He sends Harrison off with Hannah and plans to meet up with them. He also gives Hannah a bag of “essentials.” Then he goes off in search of Saxon. Terminator : Saxon, like a terminator, walks around Miami with a bullet wound. In the middle of hurricane prep. And no one seems to notice that he’s bleeding all over everything. He gets a veterinarian to stitch him up then, in what might be the grossest thing on the show ever, cuts out the vet’s tongue so he can sneak into the hospital to finish what he started with Deb. But Miami Metro busts him. Surprise, motherf***er! Bad News Bears: Dexter and Quinn learn that Debra isn’t so okay after all. She’s in a vegetative state. Quinn believes in miracles. Dexter does not. A Little Jab’ll Do Ya: Dexter dons his Miami Metro badge and gets access to Saxon’s holding cell. He lays out the tools in his test kit and eventually kills Saxon with a ballpoint pen to the jugular. And people think penmanship is dead! Psha! Another Little Jab’ll Do Ya: Elway catches up to Hannah and Harrison on a bus headed toward Daytona. Hannah uses one of Dexter’s super special horse tranquilizers to knock Elway out so that she and Harrison can escape. The Perfect Storm: Dexter goes to the hospital and, in the chaos from the hurricane, turns off Debra’s life support. He tells Harrison he loves him just before he dumps Deb’s body in the ocean like the Bay Harbor Butcher he is. Then he drives the Slice of Life directly into the hurricane. Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina: Hannah reads the news of Dexter’s “death” on her iPad while sipping an espresso in a cafe with Harrison. She sheds a single tear before taking Harrison out for ice cream. Just Jack: While those he loved (loves?) go on living without him, Dexter lives a solitary life as a lumberjack. At least we know he’ll still have his biceps, right? What grade would you give the series finale of Dexter? A B C D F View Poll »
Dads premiered tonight on Fox and this is the best thing you can say about the Seth MacFarlane-produced sitcom: It depicts equal opportunity racism! Well, mostly. The series has come under fire (yes, already) for dressing a lead Asian character up as a school girl in order to impress investors and for having a character scream out: “The Chinese are a lovely and honorable people, but you can’t trust them! There’s a reason Shanghai is a verb!” There’s also a quip about Asian men having small penises. So it does go pretty hard after one ethnic group in particular. But, hey, there’s also a joke about Latina women being maids! The cast of Dads is actually decent, with Giovanni Ribisi and Seth Green portraying the children of Martin Mull and Peter Riegert, but that only raises another question about the new comedy: Just how much were these actors paid to star in this insulting nonsense?!? Overall, Dads make 2 Broke Girls look clean and Emmy worthy. It’s hard (and depressing) to imagine it lasting more than two episodes. But that’s just our opinion! What is yours? Grade the premiere of Dads now: A B C D F View Poll »
The Food Network Star finale pitted three distinct personalities against each other. There was bright and bubbly Damaris… cool and collected Russell… and flamboyant, over-the-top Rodney. They each arrived prepared and dressed to the proverbial Nines for the final episode, with Russell even trimming his mohawk for the occasion. Yes, winning a show on Food Network, along with a a feature in Food Network Magazine and the chance to headline the South Beach Wine and Food Festival, is a big deal. So, after nearly an hour of filler, recapping and blooper, which aspiring chef took home the grand prize? DAMARIS! Read a complete Food Network Star review now at Food Fanatic and decide: Did America make the right choice? Yes, Damaris deserved it! No way, should have been Russell! Rodney FTW, folks! View Poll »
Well, that didn’t take long. On the first of its final eight episodes, Breaking Bad shocked viewers by putting the truth right out there: Walt is Heisenberg. Hank knows it. Walt knows Hank knows it. And now Hank knows that Walt knows he knows it. Where do things go from here? We do not know. But what an explosive, taut, tension-filled confrontation to close “Blood Money,” as Walt threatened his brother-in-law to “tread lightly” in a scene many fans didn’t expect to see until the series finale. Instead – boom! – creator Vince Gilligan and company wasted no time in putting it all out there. And in giving us a look ahead to when the whole town appears to know Walt’s secret… and his home is dilapidated… and he’s hairy and dirty and desperate and grabbing some Ricin for reasons that defy current comprehension. But most definitely will not bode well for someone. What a tremendous, intense hour of the best show on television. Only seven more installment remain, so enjoy them while you can. What grade would you give the return of Breaking Bad Season 5 ? A B C D F View Poll »
A good season finale opens the chest of things you didn’t know you’d been thinking all season. Tonight’s Season 6 finale of Mad Men did just that. While this season seemed as glacial as Matthew Weiner’s storytelling can get, and the finale wasn’t particularly revelatory (though it wasn’t uneventful), it really clued us in to what this season – and in fact, the whole show – is driving at. It’s about past vs. future. The future is volatile. It’s as uncertain as anything can get. Don is so scared of it that fact, he sabotages everything just to maintain some control over it. And the past, that pesky horrible flicker in the distant background, well it’s equally as disastrous, but in the end it’s just about the only thing we know for certain. Ignoring it only leads to more pain. In Care Of finds Don finally reaching the realization that if he doesn’t learn to restrain his self-destruction, his life will spiral. Don has been turning to drinking – and alone, no less – as a respite from his confused self-hatred. And finally, after ending up in the drunk tank for punching a minister, he decides “enough is enough.” Time to build a future. Of course, Don’s way of building a future is stealing it from someone else. He did it when he became Don Draper, and now he’s doing it with Stan Rizzo. Rizzo volunteers to be put on the Sunkist account in order that he can go to California and start a satellite agency, and when Don realizes he needs a shakeup, he figures that sounds like a good plan. Megan, of course, takes very little convincing. But when Ted tells Don that he wants to go to California himself, in order to escape his love for Peggy and keep his family together, it incites something profound. At first, Don says no. He’s sorry, but the gears are already in motion. Megan is being written off her show, plans are being made. But then, Don has a realization: Ted – this timid, scared man – is in danger of ruining his life. Like Don ruined his. During a pitch meeting with Hershey, Don reveals to the clients, and to his partners, some deeply locked away portions of his childhood that he’d never told anyone. He was raised in a whore house – not by a loving father like the version of himself in his pitch to Hershey – where nobody cared about him. The only sweetness in his life was the Hershey bar he earned from stealing money out of Johns’ wallets. This is not the first time Don has sabotaged a pitch meeting with his wild impulses, but it is the first time that he seems to have had a true catharsis doing it. Until this very moment, all of his erratic behavior has been destructive. It has been a way to influence the future – however negatively. Now, for the first time, he is embracing the past; dealing with his pain; confronting it, publicly. After Hershey leaves, he tells Ted he can have California. After all, Ted is trying to right his wrong. Not that he acted on his feelings for Peggy but that he has them in the first place. That’s a consideration Don never seems to have even realized existed. It’s big. And it hit Don hard. After an entire season of finding Ted to be an annoying pest that he could more or less walk all over, he now sees him as a man at a crossroads, and one that Don himself was on without even knowing it. So Don tells Megan that they’re not going to California after all. And of course Megan, who has always been just a piece of furniture unluckily positioned in Don’s blast radius, is justifiably upset. Final straws are being pulled. And just when Don has taken his first step toward finding himself. Megan leaves in a huff, possibly forever. And the next morning, Don shows up to work to find out he’s been unceremoniously canned. Another final straw has been pulled. So Don, without a wife or a job, has finally shed all the things that comprised his future. He has nothing left to destroy. Nobody to cheat on. No accounts to sabotage. Finally Don can work on his past. Sally, who told her father this season that she realized she knows nothing about him, is about to learn. The final scene of the season finds Don showing his three kids where he grew up. That he’s Dick Whitman. The secret that ruined his marriage with Betty, that threatened his job, that he has done countless horrible things to protect, is no longer a secret. It’s him. OTHER NOTES: It wouldn’t surprise me if Betty comes back into the picture next season. Weiner and his staff are great at making little things that seemed to just be scenery along the road turn out to be clues to major themes and plot details. The fact that Don and Betty had that nice little trip together as a family again, that they slept together again, compounded with Don’s embracing of his troubled past, suggests that him and Betty may get back together. Of course, it could also be a red herring. Poor Rizzo. Even when Don, who stole his idea, gives it away, he doesn’t even give it back to its rightful owner. He gives it to Ted. Peggy said something very poignant at the end of the episode. When Ted tells her she’ll realize he made the right decision, she tells him that it must be nice to be able to make decisions. Peggy has grown so much as a character, it’s tough to see her continue to be thrown around so much. SC&P is an entity without a spine now. Don is the entire reason the merger happened and the new business was created. He’s also the reason Sunkist won out over Ocean Spray. While he agreed to let Draper remain out of the new Name, Don really is the foundation of it. It will be very interesting to see what Don’s embracing of his past holds for his future. While he was told he could come back to work in a few months, that probably isn’t true. And for the sake of compelling storytelling, I hope it isn’t. The future is as uncertain as ever.
Last week’s Keeping Up With the Kardashians centered around Kim’s pregnancy. With the early arrival of baby North West , we’re sure to hear plenty more about that in the coming weeks. Sunday’s show, though, was all about Scott Disick. The man proved inspirational to a cancer patient … yes, we’re serious. Reality TV at its best, people! Let’s break down this week’s episode: Scott Disick has made us all cringe over the years by being a creepy, narcissistic jerk at times … but is it possible that this was all (or mostly) an act? Or the character he was playing in those early days? It’s hard to say, but we’ve seen a more likable side of the man in the last year-plus, from hilarious antics to last night’s genuinely warm (!?) behavior. Josie Langsdorf, an Ohio woman dying of cancer, for some reason unknown to the rest of humankind had a meeting with Scott Disick on her bucket list. Plus 50 , because the show wouldn’t make that up … would it? Minus 250 , though, for having that item on your bucket list. Scott, obviously, was reluctant to go, not just because it’s crazy that he was on her bucket list but because he doesn’t like to be around sick people. But he did, and the experience was actually pretty cool to see. Plus 300 for Josie’s spirit, despite the hand she’s been dealt. Now that is an inspiration. Scott even admitted that his own father had been sick for years, and gave her one of his Rolex watches. Yes, one of them. Still, Plus 150 for that. “I came into this situation thinking it would be extremely sad, but it’s really the opposite,” he said. “I’m more thankful to have met her than she is to meet me.” Now we see why Kourtney Kardashian stays with this guy even though he doesn’t propose. Plus 100 . Gotta give credit to Lord D when it’s due, THGers. The other big issue last night was Bruce Jenner and his hearing problem, which was not a brain tumor (phew) and just a normal part of aging. Minus 200 for planting the idea that Bruce has a brain tumor. The kids, meanwhile, pranked Kris Jenner saying they were a guy named Todd Kraines, calling her and sending her stuff … and it was pretty great. Kris knew it wasn’t the real Todd, but had no clue what was going on, and the payoff once she figures it out is going to be classic. So Plus 100 . EPISODE TOTAL: +200! SEASON TOTAL: +286!
Food Network Star took viewers to the movies last night. Though popcorn and Sour Patch Kids were definitely not on the menu. Indeed, a special episode of this Food Network hit featured a team challenge in which the contestants were tasked to create film-themed trailers for their food. We witnessed one dedicated to western, another to romance and a hilarious references to “50 Shades of Hot Sauce.” It’s unclear if that items came with chains and handcuffs. Who impressed viewers the most? Which preview made us cringe the hardest? Visit our friends at Food Fanatic now for their latest Food Network Star review !
Plenty of favors, both formal and sexual—but mostly sexual—are exchanged in this week’s Mad Men , lending the episode its title: “Favors.” Don does all he can to help the Rosens’ son Mitchell from entering prison for draft evasion. All in the hopes, of course, of Syliva returning the favor. Ted ends up doing the bulk of the favor, asking a friend to give Mitchell a relatively harmless pilot position. Mrs. Campbell’s male caretaker may or may not be offering her some sexual favors of his own. And of course…Sylvia returns the favor. But “Favors” is less about the favors themselves, and more about the motives behind the favors. So many of our favorite Mad Men characters are supremely selfish, with only brief moments of compassion or consideration. It makes us wonder what’s in it for them. We’ve already discussed Don’s motives. He’s clearly not over Sylvia. He wants to help Mitchell so that he can get her to talk to him again; so that he’ll be seen as the hero. Ted is one of the only “compassionate by default” characters on the show, making his favor more of a reflex than a cunning strategy. He agrees to help Don help Mitchell with very little hesitation—and this, after Don nearly destroyed a dinner with Chevy by “testing the waters” on their willingness to help, given their large military contract. Only after his initial willingness does Ted realize he can use the situation to get a little something out of Don. What does he want out of Don? Just for him to be a better partner; pay attention, stop subtly competing. The most interesting motive reveal of all this episode comes from the frustratingly enigmatic Bob. We get our first real glimpse into who Bob is and what he’s after with a perplexing scene between him and Pete. After hearing that the caretaker may be taking advantage of Pete’s Mom, Bob, who recommended him, gives a long impassioned speech about how loving a man can make you feel lively, ending with a subtle-ish come-on to Pete. That Bob is homosexual would not be particularly shocking or groundbreaking—especially given Salvatore’s storyline over the first three seasons—but that he is interested in Pete certainly would be. It seems a tad asynchronous, so we’ll see how it pans out. Hopefully this isn’t the last of the Bob-related reveals, as his odd nature seems to be leading up to something big. Bob isn’t the only one with some Pete-related chemistry this week. Signs that were pointing to something between Peggy and Stan, and then Peggy and Ted, are now inching ever-so slightly towards Peggy and Pete. Beginning with Pete’s mom mistaking Peggy for Trudy—complete with an accidental reference to their child together—and ending with parallels between their lonely isolated home lives (Peggy seems to be searching for someone that can be there to kill rats—and it won’t be Stan, who adamantly proclaimed “I’m not your boyfriend), it seems Peggy and Pete may soon find themselves settling for each other out of sheer convenience. The biggest moment of the episode came, however, when Sally walks in on Don collecting his “favor” from Sylvia. Tensions have been rising all season long, and we knew Don’s affair would come back to bite him in the ass. Despite Sally seemingly coming to a reluctant surrender of her panicked disgust over discovering her father cheating, the event may just have irreparably damaged her and her relationship to Don. As soon as Sally saw Don and Sylvia together, the act became so, so real. The affair between Sylvia and Don may just be the crashing-down of Don’s world that the entire season has been pointing to. We’ll see if Sally lets it slip. RATING: 3/5
