Hi and welcome to Last Week in TV, a weekly column in which I will grade all the TV I watched in the previous week, give mini-reviews, and hand out episode awards. The column will be posted every Monday. Some awards will be for the week overall, while others are more episode-specific. Since no one can watch all TV, I will watch one episode from a show I don't normally watch and review it too. Every week I will randomly choose an episode from the weekly nomination form. It can be the most current episode, a goody from earlier seasons, or an episode of a show already cancelled. Here are the guidelines:
2. I am a prude so anything with more than PG-13 light nudity and cursing will be turned off partway through and I will randomly choose something else. Quick guideline: Orphan Black works; Game of Thrones, True Blood, and Deadwood do not. I also do not do reality TV.
3. If part of your goal for nominating a show is to increase viewers, please choose the episode carefully. I am an honest reviewer and I rarely pull punches. Sometimes an episode can be the best for those who know the plot and characters, but it is too complicated for someone who knows neither. Good standalone episodes are generally easier for newbies than mytharc ones.
4. Once a nominated show is reviewed, I will not revisit it until next season unless it gets a 5. Each nominated show will be graded on a 1-5 rating: 1 - never again / 2 - not likely to watch again / 3 - possible show to watch in hiatus / 4 - on the "to watch" list / 5 - making it a weekly show
I am really looking forward to hearing what episode awards, you give your shows as well and hope for great discussion in the comments. This column will start the week of Jan. 6, with the first article posted on Jan. 13. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below. Until then, happy TV week and don't forget to nominate an episode for the week of Jan 5 - 11.
The rest of this article is an example of the probable layout of the article (minus the mini-reviews and with far more episode awards), based on the first 6 episodes of Teen Wolf 3A. So if you came here for a different show, now is the time to bail. Hope to talk TV with you in 2 weeks. Cheers!
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Last Week in TV - Teen Wolf version, part 1
Note: This article covers the first 6 episodes of 3A.
Overall Awards:
*This episode had everything - great drama, excellent character interaction, general spookiness, a fantastic guest actress, and character development. This
Best Scene - Motel California again - Stiles tries to talk Scott out of self-immolation
*This is the best scene in Teen Wolf by far. I love how it highlighted the Stiles and Scott friendship from even before the show started. Mostly though it was a heartfelt tribute to the relationship on which the entire show is built, closer than brothers and more powerful than anything the supernatural can throw at it. This was beautifully acted and letting Lydia then save them both was the perfect ending.
Best Quote - Chaos Rising - Derek: "We don't like you. Now shut up and help us." Peter: "Fair enough."
*The way Derek says it so matter-of-factly after Peter accuses him of talking behind his back was priceless.
*This category was harder because there were several good funny moments, but this one made me laugh the most. Stiles visible frustration matched with Coach's glee made for a winning combination.
Best Action - Fireflies
*While there is less action in this one than at first glance, this is one of the few where we see the set up action as well. Then the boiler room slash fest was well done. Still, if they hadn't chopped it up into little pieces so that they cut away every time the tension amped up, the alphas vs. Derek's pack scene in Frayed would have won hands down.
Episode Awards:
3.01 - Tattoo - Grade: B-
Best scene - Mystery Motorcycle Chick saves IsaacBest reason to watch - sets up the alpha pack mytharc
Best reason to fast forward - tie - monologues / Scott and Allison awkwardness / anything tattoo
Smartest Parent - Jackson's dad for getting his kid out of Beacon Hills
Funniest Scene - Sheriff pulls Stiles away from his keyboard
Biggest Aww - Argent and Allison hug
Most Well Read - Scott by about 325 books
Best Continuity - Principal with sword
Biggest Oxymoron - Alpha Pack
Thing I Didn't Notice Until the 6th Rewatch - Shoeless walks like a dancer
Best Quotes:
1. Tattoo Guy: "Boy, it's a good thing you drew me a picture."
2. Stiles: "Is that from the accident?" Lydia: "No, Prada bit me." Stiles: "Your dog?" Lydia: "No, my designer handbag."
3. Elevator Alpha: "Don't you realize what you're dealing with? I'm an Alpha." Derek: "So am I."
4. Scott: "It healed." Stiles: "Thank God, I hated it. Sorry."
5. Lydia: "Allison, I love you so if you need to do that thing where we talk about me and pretend like we're not actually talking about you, it's totally fine."
3.02 - Chaos Rising - Grade: B
Best Reason to Watch - Stiles and Peter interaction
Best Action - Vault fight
Funniest - Stiles searches for a condom / Stiles and Peter banter in Derek's new loft
Most Welcome Return - Peter and his snark / Coach
Best Moment - Coach thinks Scott wants to go to the bathroom but he really wants to answer
Biggest Aww Moment - Derek tells Isaac he doesn't have to do the ice bath
Thing I Didn't Notice Until the 6th Rewatch - Isaac grabs Scott's arm when freaking out in ice bath
Most Ludicrous - Bruise clues
Least Helpful - Peter's glaucoma vision from Isaac's memories
Best Quotes: (Besides the one mentioned above)
1. Stiles: "They're an alpha pack so shouldn't they have a lair?" Peter: "They're werewolves not Bond villains."
2. Stiles: "I can't take waiting like this you know. It's nerve-racking. My nerves are racked. They're severely racked. Racked." Peter: "I could beat you unconscious and wake you when it's over."
3. Peter: "I'm sure Erica and Boyd are sweet kids. They're going to be missed." Stiles: "Could someone kill him again please?"
4. Peter: "Wolf dens?" Stiles: "Yeah, wolf dens. Where do you live?" Peter: "In an underground network of caves hidden deep in the woods." Stiles: "Whoa, really?" Peter: "No you idiot, I'm in an apartment downtown."
5. Coach: "Stilinski I think you…uh, dropped this, and congratulations."
3.03 - Fireflies - Grade: B-
Best scene: Stiles sees Heather's bodyFunniest: Isaac wants to ask Derek about dating his sister
MVP Award: Argent and his ultrasonic emitter stake toys
Best Reason to Watch - Derek heroics
Best twist: tie - Argent helps the werewolves and serial killer
Best action: Isaac vs. Cora in front of Girlfriend
Most Ludicrous - fireflies as defense against werewolves
Smartest Move: Scott has Argent drive him to the pool crime scene
Worst Move: Tie - taking your nature phobe girlfriend camping
Best Reason to Avoid Overtime - Getting trapped in the basement with werewolves
Best Quotes:
1. Stiles: "It's like the freaking Shining out here. If two little girls come out of the woods, start asking me to play with them forever and ever, I'm not going to be surprised."
2. Isaac: "So your sister? Uh sorry, that's bad timing. I'm sorry. I'll ask later, it's fine. Or never. Yeah, yeah I'm good with never."
3. Peter: "Let's throw the reunion party when she's not an unstoppable killing machine."
4. Stiles: "What kind of werewolf strangles someone? That's not very werewolfy."
5. Scott: "Just curious, is there a reason the gun is still pointed at me?" Argent: "There's probably still some part of me that wants to shoot you." Scott: "I get that."
3.04 - Unleashed - Grade: C+
Best Reason to Watch - the mystery of Darach
Funniest Scene - Danny offers to have sex with Stiles
Most Annoying Plot Point - blaming Derek for everything
Best Reason to Fast Forward - everything that happens in Derek's loft
The "You've Got to be Kidding Me!" Award - no one has told Lydia about the Alpha Twins yet
Cheesiest Moment - Duke makes it lightning and calls himself Demon Wolf
Douchiest Moment - tie - Derek throws a glass at Isaac to make him leave / Deaton says keeping secrets is a habit even though people are dying
Hidden Talent Award- Allison can hotwire a car and drive a motorcycle
Dumbest Plan - Investigating instead of running when you hear voices under the dumpster / Isaac chasing AlphaTwins
Best Plan - One Alpha Twin beats up the other to frame Isaac
Best Quotes:
1. Allison: "Could I ask you a question?" Isaac: "Do you have to?"
2. Stiles: "Hey Boyd, I didn't know you were back at school." Boyd: "Yeah, I would have told you but we're not actually friends."
3. Kali: "Who knows if it's 5 minutes or 5 hours before it's too late to take this thing out, but just to be on the safe side Duke, you might want to get to the point."
4. Stiles: "Scott, your eyes turn into yellow glow sticks okay. Hair literally grows from your cheeks and then immediately disappears and if I were to stab you right now, it would just magically heal. But you're telling me you're having trouble grasping human sacrifices?" Scott: "That's a good point too."
5. Danny: "I like to cuddle." Stiles: "That's so sweet. Are you kidding?" Danny: "Yes, I'm kidding." Stiles: "You know you don't toy with a guy's emotions like that, Danny. It's not attractive, alright?"
3.05 - Frayed - Grade: C-
Best moment - GhostMom helps Allison thread the needle
MVP - Coach for bringing the funny / Allison for bringing heroism
Best interaction - Cora and Peter (the only person she's tolerable with)
Biggest Plot Inconsistency - No one uses their werewolf senses to track Derek - AGAIN / Deaton werewolf proofs the place but Scott can go anywhere
Best non-dialogue scene - Stiles vs. Danny via cell phone
Most evil - Stiles' smile right before he makes Jared vomit
Biggest Scare - Derek appears bloody at Blake's car
Worst scene - Scott and Allison in her bedroom - uncomfortable, stupid, and pointless - the trifecta
Most Disappointing - Argent for not helping
Best Quotes:
1. Allison: "Am I getting too close. I'm…I'm getting way too close aren't I?" Lydia: "That depends. Are you just following the bus or are you planning on mounting it at some point?"
2. Duke: "Come on Scott, put those away. I'd have to be blind, deaf, and quadriplegic for you to be an actual threat."
3. GhostMom: "You want my sympathy because you're just a 17 year old little girl and this is all too much for you to handle. Well get over it."
4. Stiles: "What's wrong with him? I don't…do I have a PhD in lycanthropy? How am I supposed to know that?"
5. Coach: "Jared I'm warning you, I'm an empathetic vomiter. You throw up, I'm going to throw up right back on you and it will be profoundly disgusting."
3.06 - Motel California - Grade: A
Best acting - tie - Isaac channeling his dad and Stiles stopping Scott's suicide
Best twist - tie - wolfsbane in the whistle and Alex Argent bitten by Deucalion
Worst twist - sex as werewolf cure all
Best Action - Stiles and Ethan fight over the handsaw
Worst shock - Argent opens the door to reveal Gerard
Biggest Momentum Killer - EDT and Derek
Best casting - Creepy Clerk
Best Use of Back Story - Boyd's through the radio
Most hypocritical - Argent says they don't have to keep secrets
Best Quotes:
1. Stiles: "Scott just listen to me okay. You're not no one. Okay, you're someone…you're…Scott you're my best friend okay and I need you. Scott, you're my brother. Alright so if we're going to do this then, I think you're just going to have to take me with you."
2. Allison (to Lydia): "I believe you. After everything we've been through, I believe you."
3. Lydia: "Either we need to get out of here right now or someone needs to learn how to do an exorcism ASAP before the werewolves go crazy and kill us."
4. Stiles: "That's a beautiful thing. Most places leave a mint under the pillow. This one leaves a record of all the horrible deaths that occurred."
5. Lydia: "I don't like this place." Allison: "I don't think the people who own this place like this place."
Screencaps by Screencapped.net
So any questions on the format? What show would you nominate me to watch? Today and tomorrow will be special Teen Wolf additions, but after that it will be spread out.
ReplyDeleteIs this solely for hour dramas or can we nominate comedies and cartoons?
ReplyDeleteAnything you want, provided it fits the guidelines above and I can find it. I've never been into cartoons, so that's intriguing.
ReplyDeleteoo I have some really good (IMHO cartoons I'd suggest but I'm not sure they're still in production.
ReplyDeleteI do have one question....when do you sleep?
I do have a quick question about the Teen Wolf awards... "Chaos Rising" ... Bruise Clues? I'm blanking. Oh, and one correction for Frayed. It's Stiles vs. Danny via text messaging, not Scott. This all appears a daunting task. Looking forward to it.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a cool idea. I'll remember to check it out in the future :)
ReplyDeleteFace palm. That's what I get for rushing this out. I did catch that I once called Scott Derek and fixed it, but I completely missed the Scott/Stiles switcheroo. Thanks. It's fixed now. Bruise Clues is what I'm calling the bruises Mystery Motorcycle left on Allison and Lydia that allowed Allison to figure out it was all going down at the bank. Absolutely nonsensical plot twist.
ReplyDeleteHa! Generally between 1 am and 7 am, with an additional hour on Saturdays.
ReplyDeleteIf the cartoons can be found on Netflix, then they are viable choices. In fact, shows no longer in production might be the easiest for me to track down. I'm looking forward to seeing what shows others really enjoy. Always on the hunt for my next favorite show.
Thanks. I am looking forward to it, because it takes so long to recap/review, so this will actually be faster.
ReplyDeleteIf you hate Dracula, why not try replacing it by The Blacklist? Actually, if you like White Collar, I'd think you would like both POI and The Blacklist. Or have you tried them and been disappointed somehow?
ReplyDeleteawesome article!! i look forward to reading it every week as you are doing a lot of the shows that i watch:) and since you are accepting requests, perhaps you could find room for The Blacklist...Cor Malum had a point, if you like White Collar, you almost certainly will like The Blacklist:)
ReplyDeleteI only hate watch Dracula because some of my favorite Twitter people keep pulling me into the #Coolant Gang and they are hilarious. In fact, I am debating whether to make Dracula the exception to my vow to include everything I watch in a week because really I only watch to tweet. It's rare I think an episode is worthy of a higher grade than D, which would get very tedious to read about.
ReplyDeleteAs for Person of Interest and Blacklist, I put both on hiatus partway through the season this year. Blacklist was frustrating me because of its lack of answers and I thought I would enjoy it better if I marathon watched instead. Turns out, I was right. I am now caught up with it and very much enjoyed the two-parter. The reason why it is listed on the "may or may not become weekly" list is because I haven't yet decided if I want to go back to week-by-week viewing or keep marathoning. Either way, I will be talking about Blacklist at some time this season.
As for Person of Interest, my interest waned with the re-introduction of Root as a main character. As soon as she turned back up with the group, I had to exit. My plan was to also catch up on it during the winter hiatus, but now it looks destined to go to summer instead. I just can't muster up the enthusiasm now, even with all the exciting plot developments that happened. I guess I am waiting for the day that Root goes on hiatus again and then I will watch all her episodes at once.
Thanks. I look forward to reading your comments about the shows too. I will most definitely be watching the rest of The Blacklist this season. I just don't know if it will be in marathon or week-by-week. However, whenever I watch it, I will add it to that week's article.
ReplyDeleteI love that idea and most of the shows I watch are on your list and I enjoy reading you reviews so I'm looking forward to reading your column.
ReplyDeleteThe Teen Wolf recap was great it made me want to rewatch that season I really loved it and this reminded me why, Thanks.
Thanks for your encouragement. I am hoping for great discussion and debate on the episode awards. I hope it will be fun for everyone. Plus I've already gotten some interesting nominations for what show to watch this week. It's going to be a blast finding new shows to watch.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't mind a review of Hustle. I have only seen the first 2 episodes and like it. There are a few cheesy scenes where they break the 4th wall. BBC's Hustle is a much more serious, detailed version of Leverage. While some of the Hustle team players feel similar to those in Leverage, there is a very different group dynamic (so far). Also, Leverage definitely had a bigger budget, but I think that the Hustle scripts are a bit more polished and realistic.
ReplyDeleteAnywho-s, if you are interested, you can find Hustle on the Netflix DVD plan or Hulu Plus streaming (trial maybe?). I think the most recent episodes are on BBC's iPlayer - but it is 8 or so seasons.
PS. I love the idea of a people submitting random shows to be reviewed - it is a great way to find new shows.
This show sounds awesome. I have never heard of it before, but I loved Leverage. It is still one of my most missed shows. Thanks for nominating it. I am pretty excited about seeing all these different shows because I think it will really expand my TV repertoire. Even shows that I don't get in during the season can be a jumping off point for me in the summer hiatus so I have a good variey to review.
ReplyDeleteOh Dahne,i just came across this,don't know how i missed it? I put down Sleepy Hollow but didn't write down an episode because they aren't back from hiatus. Love the idea! Elementary would also be a good one to do?...
ReplyDeleteI am very much looking forward to the last 3 episodes of Sleepy Hollow. The likely long hiatus, not so much. I kind of wish I had started this column for last week though because I have so much good to say about the last Elementary episode. I loved that Moriarty returned and that scene between Watson and her was magnetic. Two brilliant women facing off, don't see that often on TV these days.
ReplyDeleteElementary was fabulous last week! The writing the acting just superb! One of my favorites this season,and yes that scene was spellbinding! Looking forward to the weeks ahead,and your column!
ReplyDelete