Boob Tube Round-Up, Week of January 15 - January 21

It's the week of celebrity cameos, and while some raise the bar (Paul Rudd!) and others disappoint (Lizzy Caplan, who deserves better), others are just cringe inducing (burning Miss Piggy as a guest judge from my memory after this round-up is done).

Boob Tube Round-Up, Week of January 8 – January 14

Oh Parks and Recreation, you had me at "Low-Cal Calzone Zone."

The Little Family Drama that Could: Parenthood’s “Road Trip”

 

With all the grand spiritual narratives and cutting comedies on my television line-up, I often overlook the heartfelt slice-of-life drama Parenthood. Yet no series moves me so deeply and sincerely on such a regular basis. Last week’s episode “Road Trip” is a paradigm example of what the series does best, by setting our Bravermans adrift across the California landscape and strictly focusing on the intricate relationships amongst them.

Boob Tube Round-Up, Week of January 1 - January 7

And we’re back in business! All hiatus and no new shows make TiaC a dull girl.

‘House of Lies’: Surprisingly On-The-Nose

Today Showtime released the first episode of its upcoming new series ‘House of Lies,’ and I’m disappointed. This show has some exciting pedigree to recommend it, and yet the episode, currently available on Showtime’s website (ABSOLUTELY NSFW. Let me repeat that. This episode is NSFW!!!), left me cold. I won’t rule out a series simply based on a pilot, especially when a series can drastically change between a pilot and even the second episode, but there are some substantial improvements that need to be made if I’m going to keep it on my busy Spring TV schedule.

Riding on the BiPolar Express: An In Time With You Finale Review

Few finales have been so frustrating and yet ultimately satisfying as that of In Time With You. Some scenes and character beats made me want to grab my old field hockey stick and club my laptop to death for showing me such drivel, and yet for the last half hour of this episode I found myself grinning like an idiot as I giggled into my pillow. While I don’t think that this episode resolved all of the problems plaguing this drama, ultimately it succeeds in leaving me with fond memories of my time with it (oh me and my puns!).

I think this should be fairly obvious, but just in case, SPOILER ALERT!

Boob Tube Round-Up: Week of December 10 – December 16

Hiatus? Who does that? The next few weeks without new episodes are going to be torturous...

The Second Commandment: Check Out Padam Padam

(Padam Padam is a Monday-Tuesday drama that premiered on December 5^th in South Korea on the new cable channel jTBC and is being subtitled in English by Dramafever. It is scheduled to air for twenty episodes).

I can say, in all earnestness, that Padam Padam epitomizes why I am so passionately devoted to the medium of television. It may seem a bit hasty to throw such praise around for a series that has just aired its first two episodes this past week, but when the directing, cinematography, writing, and acting is firing on all cylinders the way it has so far, I can’t help but get excited.

Boob Tube Round Up: Week of December 3 – December 9, 2011

The holidays are approaching, and nothing says "Merry Christmas" like harassing school principles and making fun of Glee!

“The Trial of Leslie Knope,” the Heart and Soul of Parks and Recreation

I realized that a mere Twitter sized love-fest for this week’s Parks and Recreation, “The Trial of Leslie Knope,” is an insult to the greatness that was this episode. Parks and Rec is already one of my all time favorite sitcoms, but this episode stands apart from the rest, and deserves proper recognition. NOTE: This post is all kinds of spoilery, so avert your eyes, those faint hearted amongst you!

So why the bleeding heart over this episode?