Castle 6x03: Need to Know

These have been taking me too long to do, so I'm going to cut down on the length of the recaps.

Dead former child star on a crane.

Pi hasn't gone back to his home planet yet.

Castle wants to help with the case, but the guys are hesitant.

The Cap'n wants to kick him out of the station, but she's not in charge anymore.

Hey kids, it's Antonio Sabato Jr.

2 Cool for School reunion special with Russian financing.

Secret weapons shipments.

Secret CIA job. Investigation's over, guys.

Beckett doesn't let the CIA boss her around.

Sexy suspect, Svetlana. She's the dead guy's secret girlfriend.

Why'd you do it, Antonio?

CIA blackmail.

Not on my watch.

I got an apartment in DC so we can be together.

You're fired.

What I Liked
-Castle watches Esposito reject his call on live TV. Hee-hee.
-The guys force Castle to admit that it really is quite a coincidence that Beckett took over their case on the same day he showed up. How conveeeeeeeeeeeeeeenient.
-Perlmutter analyzed poop from the victim's shoe and found that it came from a chicken. That's going above and beyond. I like Perlmutter, he's one of the few people who can really put Castle in his place. Maybe they need to find room for both him and Lanie on the show.
-When I saw James Patrick Stuart running around at the beginning of the episode, I figured he was the murderer because he was someone I recognized who wasn't in the episode again after the first 30 seconds. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that he was a CIA guy instead. Unfortunately, these things usually go the other way, and it can be terribly irksome.

What I Hated
-TV's Lisa Edelstein plays the 'not anymore, you're not' card and people are upset. I hate that. In reality, people are really pleased when things aren't their problem anymore.
-Det. Grant Sullivan.

Why are the new characters all lame caricatures?

-The show offers up multiple red herrings as the guys go to arrest Antonio Sabato Jr. But everyone already knew he was the one they were there for.
-Antonio Sabato Jr's acting in the interrogation scene. With a better actor, that could've been some powerful stuff, but his performance was just really lousy.

One can see why his character wasn't booking many gigs.

Final Thoughts
Seems like Seamus Dever got a little sick during production.

That's three straight episodes without Lanie. Perhaps, now that they seem like they'll be back in New York full time again, she'll be back on the show.

It really didn't take them very long to get Beckett back to New York and to get her out of whatever job it is she had. Not that I really expected it to. It would've been one thing if she'd been working out of an office somewhere in the city, but they moved her to an entirely different area, and that just wasn't going to work if they wanted her as a regular character on the show. I suppose they could've done a split thing where she would be working on one case in DC while the guys worked on another one in New York, with Castle alternating where he worked from week to week, but that might've gotten old quickly. Or, it could've been awesome. Honestly, I'm not sure why they didn't at least try that out for six episodes before they had her get fired for following her conscience.

Why did Castle give up his ability to work alongside the NYPD just because Beckett went to DC. That wasn't Beckett-specific, it came directly from the Mayor. In fact, it would've been better for him to work their without her, since there would be no one around for him to fraternize with. None of those other outside consultant guys have to work with a specific partner. They just do, on account of they always get paired up with hot ladies. Which, is a pretty nice perk.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the parts of this episode that didn't feature Sully or Pi. Those two should really have their own spinoff where they ride around in a van, solving mysteries. I wouldn't watch it, but it would at least get them off the show.

TBBT 7x03: The Scavenger Vortex

The gang's having dinner at the Cheesecake Factory when Raj asks everyone if they're coming to his murder mystery dinner party since none of them have RSVPed yet. Leonard says he's coming, but Raj knows it's a lie because the party was actually a week earlier and no one came. Since everyone's tired of his dinner parties, Raj has a new idea: An MIT-style scavenger hunt. Everyone's in, even Sheldon. Which is good, because Raj makes the whole thing seem very exciting.

He's a master showman.

Each team will have 10 puzzles to solve, each of which will lead to the next puzzle, except the last one, which leads to a gold coin. But first, they need to pick teams. Everyone who's playing went to a big, fancypants college... except for Penny, so when Bernadette suggests they divide themselves by couples, Leonard balks. Penny gets miffed and picks Sheldon, but then Sheldon's bummed, so they pick names out of a hat. Sheldon picks Penny.

He's not happy about it.

The first puzzle is a picture puzzle of the comic book shop. Penny solves it quickly, but Sheldon refuses to go until they've assembled the entire puzzle. On the way to the store, Bernadette's hyper-competitive side comes out and she screams at Leonard not to slow down for birds because they can fly. Amy and Howard wind up alone together for the first time and struggle to find something they have in common; they both love Neil Diamond.

The second puzzle comes directly from the Riddler (or at least a standee version of him). Despite arriving third, Sheldon solves the puzzle first, while Bernadette and Leonard leave last, which really ticks her off. Nevertheless, two minutes after they arrive, everyone's gone.

Except Stuart.

As the scavenger hunt goes on, Leonard wants to quit because he thinks he upset Penny, but Bernadette tells him not to because Penny thinks he's a pussy(which is something she made up just to motivate him). Amy and Bernadette sing a bunch of Neil Diamond songs. And Sheldon is vindicated as one of the puzzles leads to a bowling alley, and he brought his own ball.

The last puzzle leads to Sheldon's spot on the couch, but when they get back to the apartment, the coin's not there. Instead, they find a very smug Raj.

A smoking jacket and brandy makes everyone look smug.

He tells everyone to look in their pockets, where he surreptitiously placed a coin earlier in the day. Everyone's a winner! But not everyone's happy with that, so Raj has to flee before Penny murders him.

What I Liked
-Everyone bashes Princeton. Everyone always bashes Princeton. Except on Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
-Raj's smoke bombs. Smoke bombs make everything seem more exciting.
-One of the puzzles is a set of coordinates that leads to a bowling alley. They actually do lead to a real life bowling alley in Pasadena. I like when they don't just 555 something.
-Part of the reason Raj made everyone a winner was because he didn't know who would be on Penny's team.

It was Sheldon, and in the end he was the only one who felt like a winner. Good job, Raj.

What I Hated
-Amy thinks Howard is too old to have Weird Al on his mp3 player. No one is too old for Weird Al.
-A whole bunch of Amy and Howard singing Neil Diamond songs. Ugh.

All the air kicks in the world can't make it better.

Final Thoughts
I ran a small scavenger hunt during my second year of university. It wasn't nearly as involved as the big, fancy ones that have corporate sponsorship and whatnot, but it was still fun. The winner got a trophy I made out of garbage. It may not seem comparable, but I think it gives me a bit of insight into just exactly how much of a pain in the ass it can be to write clues. Even though the scavenger hunt itself wasn't real, the clues were. Good job, Big Bang Theory writers.

This episode stands as proof that it's totally possible to include every character in an episode that only has a single plot line. Hell, they even managed to include Stuart for a minute or two. The whole thing was a lot more cohesive than the show is when the do two or three plots. They still split everyone up into groups whose interactions weren't always related to each other, but there was a singular goal driving them all, and it made the show a lot more satisfying.

Of course, the episode wasn't as funny as the first two of the season were, but I'm not sure if that's a consequence of the plot, or just the fact that I don't think people singing along to Neil Diamond is funny. Regardless, this was still a better episode than last week, and still way the hell funnier than most shows on TV... even most sitcoms.

TBBT 7x02: The Deception Verification

A beardless Leonard returns a couple days early to surprise Penny, but he doesn't tell anyone else that he's back so the two of them can have a few days alone to themselves. Which is actually kind of a dick move since Sheldon's really missed him. So much so that he goes to see Stuart at the comic book shop to find an appropriate 'Welcome Home!' gift. Stuart suggests an Aquaman statue.

It's pretty cool.

Despite his lack of success and hatred for life, Stuart's actually a devious businessman and manages to talk Sheldon into buying the statue for himself for $1200 and getting Leonard a 'rare' Batman squirt gun.

After making his purchase, Sheldon returns home with Chinese food just as Penny is paying the pizza delivery dude. She and Leonard are having a 'romantic' dinner, and he's adjourned to the bathroom for a moment. When he flushes the toilet, Sheldon realizes that Penny has company, although she tries to deny it. He also notices the two wine glasses on the table, and that her Chinese takeout containers from the previous night are actually in the trash can. She insists that she's alone, and he believes her, but later, when he's having tea with Amy, he starts to think that Penny might be cheating on Leonard. Amy doesn't think Penny's capable of that, but when Sheldon tells her about the takeout containers, she sees no other explanation.

The two of them go over to listen at Penny's door, and when they hear the sound of kissing, they burst in to catch them in the act.

Ah-Ha!

Sheldon's pissed that Leonard thinks so little of their friendship that he would hide from him for two days. So, Leonard apologizes by giving him a sailor hat he got while he was away.

It looks pretty good on him.

It doesn't work, though, and on their way to work the next day, Sheldon is still testy. So testy, in fact, that Leonard's unwilling to drive him to work because he's so annoying. Which means Amy has to come over and give him a ride. They bump into Penny in the hall, and he's snippy to her, too.

Meanwhile, Howard is acting like a whiny bitch. He's sensitive, and he's feeling fat. Bernadette figures out that it's because the ointment he's been applying to his mother's back is a very powerful estrogen cream and he's been absorbing it for weeks. Once he knows what's going on, Howard researches the effects of estrogen and invites Raj over to ask him if his boobs have gotten bigger.

Much groping ensues.

When the guys all meet at the university for lunch on Monday, the roommates fight, but sensitive Howard convinces them to call a truce, and later that week, Sheldon and Leonard have a rollicking good time at the Los Angeles Bureau of Weights and Measures.

What I Liked
-Howard complains that they put Doc Ock's brain in Spider-Man's body. They've done some stupid things at Marvel, but that was certainly in the top five.
-Sheldon's uncle used to wear the same cologne as the weed-reeking pizza delivery guy. Hee-hee.
-The sailor hat looks so good on Sheldon that he decides to change his Halloween costume, which means Amy has to be Olive Oyl, and thus needs to lay off the doughnuts. She has one for breakfast the next morning, anyway.

What I Hated
-Penny cheaps out on the tip and threatens to bust the delivery guy for smelling like marijuana. Not cool.
-Howard on estrogen is little more than a caricature. I know it's a little funnier, but they basically made him a super-PMS woman rather than just slightly feminine. It's a bit of unnecessary sexism on a show that's occasionally been derided for being unnecessarily sexist.
-Jiggling man boobs. They're funny, but no one wants to see that. Also, damn Kunal Nayyar needs to work on his pecs.

Final Thoughts
It turns out the Batman Water Gun actually is relatively rare, and I couldn't find a store that sells it, or even find it on eBay. The Aquaman statue was likewise difficult to locate, although I can't imagine why anyone would want to buy one in the first place. Aquaman sucks. That's right, I said it.

I didn't like this episode as much as the first one, even though it was funnier and only had two plots, rather than three. Probably because the plot about Howard and his boobs just plain wasn't that good. Man jiggling aside, there really wasn't much to like about it. These sorts of 'man gets in touch with his feminine side' stories almost always turn into caricatures of super-whiny women, and there's nothing terribly new or interesting about them. This show's really good at mining the old sitcom tropes for new gold, but this particular one's just never been funny or compelling.

TBBT 7x01: The Hofstadter Insufficiency

Leonard's been away all summer, and Sheldon's starting to really miss him. As such, when he dreams that his good buddy has been eaten by a kraken...

Or possibly just molested by one, he wakes up in the middle of the dream

...he has to immediately run over to Penny's place to talk about how he's worried that she might be missing Leonard and having nightmares that one might have if they watched Clash of the Titans before bed. Though surprisingly chipper and well-kempt for someone who was supposedly asleep, Penny is in no mood for Sheldon's shenanigans, and she almost shuts the door in his face. However, he suggests that he sleep at her place so she won't miss Leonard so much, and seeing that Sheldon could use a little comforting, she agrees. He then marches into her room, leaving her to sleep on the couch.

At work the next day, Raj is still pining over Lucy, even seeing her face in his chicken pot pie... which Wolowitz subsequently murders. Since Bernadette is out of town, he suggests that Raj accompany him to a mixer for incoming post-docs, so that he can try out his newfound ability to talk to the ladies. Unfortunately, it takes time to learn how to talk to women, so even though he can physically do it, Raj can't do anything more than make awkward small-talk. Including telling the head of the HR Department, Mrs. Davis, that it's okay that her husband cheated on her because penguins cheat on each other and they're adorable.

Smooth

Back at the apartment, Sheldon continues to miss Leonard. But he refuses to admit it, even after inviting Penny over to play three-dimensional chess because it's what he always used to do with Leonard. The boredom eventually makes her miss Leonard so much that she decides she has to call him. Despite the fact that it's 5:30 in the morning where he is, Leonard is wide awake.

And getting his groove on.

Apparently, research vessels in the North Sea are home to some of the most kick-ass parties on the planet. They're dancing and partying and doing shots. Penny's a bit miffed that he's having so much fun while she misses him terribly, but Sheldon's fine, because he's a rock and he totally doesn't miss him at all. She looks to Sheldon for comfort, but he's no help, and they're out of booze. However, he tells her that he'll still try to comfort her because Leonard made him promise to look after her while he was gone. That revelation just makes Penny miss him more.

To get their minds off Leonard, Sheldon and Penny decide to have their very first heart-to-heart conversation. They start with him telling her how many pairs of pants he owns, and also underpants when she asks him to get more personal. That's not exactly what she meant, though, so she tells him something he doesn't know about her: When she first came to LA, she did a topless scene in a movie about a killer gorilla. Except he's seen it. It was called Serial Apist, and Howard looked it up the day they first met. Sheldon gets the idea, though, and he tells her that he tells people he's okay with Youtube's switch to a thumbs-based rating system, even though he's really not. She scoffs at him and starts to leave, but he tells her he's upset because that actually was something that meant a lot to him, and she treated it like it was nothing. He's right, so she apologizes, and they hug it out.

You can feel the love.

Meanwhile, Bernadette and Amy are at a neuroscience conference together. When they head down to the bar to plan which talks they're going to attend, some guys buy them drinks. Bernadette tells the guys that they're taken, but she says that no one would blame her if Amy went over to talk to them. This of course starts a fight about whose significant other is weirder. Honestly, it's probably a draw. They're still angry at each other when they go to bed, but the power of girl talk is overpowering, and they chat about which one of the guys they would've hypothetically gone for if they weren't attached. As it turns out, Amy wanted the one that was kinda like Howard, and Bernadette wanted the one that was kinda like Sheldon. This revelation is too much for them to handle and they awkwardly go to sleep.

What I Liked
-In his dream, Sheldon's ticked off that the Back to the Future II and III DVDs are in the wrong cases. That's the sort of crime that should be punishable by a swift kick in the gonads.
-Penny's fine with Sheldon taking her bed. After six years as neighbours, she's finally learned to deal with his eccentricities. That's some good character growth.
-Raj says that hot, young undergrads are so much better than the old, ugly ones. The man speaks the truth.
-The worst thing about being angry at Leonard for not missing her enough is that Penny has to process her emotions without vodka. Vodka makes everything better.
-Serial Apist. I don't know why, but those kinds of jokes make me giggle.

I wouldn't see it in the theatre, but I'd probably watch if it were on TV.

What I Hated
-Hair dangling over Kaley Cuoco's boobs when she's in a nightgown.

If you're gonna show skin, go all the way. Don't half-ass it. Or in this case, half-boob it.

Final Thoughts
This is the second time that Leonard's gone away for the summer and left Penny behind. It's also the second time he's grown a beard. Is this some kind of subconscious way for the writers to tell us that Penny is Leonard's beard? Probably not.

I really don't like it when they break up the episode into three completely unrelated stories. They can be funny, and this one certainly was, but it makes the show seem disjointed, and just seems like lazy writing. Their problem seems to be that they have too many characters, and getting them all into every episode is probably really hard without breaking things up that way. That's no excuse, though. If they didn't want to have to shove so many characters into an episode, then they shouldn't have created them.

All that aside, this was a pretty good way to start the episode. It was interesting to see some of the characters actually dealing with the fact that Leonard is away, rather than just having him return two minutes into the episode. It's unlikely that his absence will have any long-term repercussions, or even get mentioned again after he returns in episode two, but at least it had some consequences. One of which turned out to be Sheldon and Penny bonding. Character development! I love it!

The Crazy Ones 1x02: The Spectacular

Simon gives Zach a leather jacket they used in a photo shoot as a congratulatory gift for a job well done, and it makes Andrew a little jealous. He thinks the boss notices Zach more because he's a copywriter, which means he talks more during pitch meetings. Andrew gets confirmation when Simon gives them a "Great work, Zach" after they show him an idea for a Crest campaign. When Zach points that out, Simon tries to give the leather jacket to Andrew instead, but it just looks so much better on Zach.

It really does look good on him.

Since Simon is raising ducklings to be the first residents of the newly restored Arrowhead Pond, he decides that it'll be a good bonding experience and gets Andrew to help him. At first, Andrew's not terribly enthusiastic about the whole thing because part of the job involves cleaning duck anuses with a brush, but when Simon explains the sentimental meaning the pond has to him, he gets on board. Which makes Zach jealous for the first time in his life.

Meanwhile, Sydney is making a pitch to Windy City Coffee, and Simon thinks she's playing it too safe. He wants her to put more penis into it. Which is hard, because she's a woman. She won't let him talk her out of her pitch, and the WCC execs like the slow, steady growth that she says it'll deliver, but they were really hoping for something flashier. Simon suggests a Spectacular; a media event designed to get attention. Even without any specific details, the execs love it, which leaves Sydney to figure it out. She spends all night on it, and winds up a bit frazzled.

Just a bit.

Eventually, though, she comes up with something spectacular: A three-storey coffee pot, eternally pouring coffee into a giant cup.

It's spectacular!

Unfortunately, when the wind picks up, it starts to rain coffee. The gathered crowd starts tries to flee before their clothes are ruined, but it's too late. The execs are not amused. Sydney's a little morose until Simon tells the story of exactly how the Arrowhead Pond was contaminated in the first place: It was him. He did a Spectacular for Pop Rocks back in the 1980s that involved pouring tonnes of them into the pond. The effect was considerably more pronounced than he had expected, and it blew up most of the fish.

When Sydney sees video of the debacle on the news, she gets an idea. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, so when life gives you coffee, you make coffeeade, I suppose. At any rate, she decides to take the video and use it in a horror-themed ad.

Pictured: Coffeeade.

The execs love the fact that it's edgy, and that there's a red-band version that features a woman whose shirt got just a little too wet.

Then it's time to release the ducks. Andrew has a little trouble letting go, but Simon convinces him that the ducklings need to be free. They've imprinted on Andrew, though, so at first they won't leave. But once he gets in the water and takes a swim, they follow him right in. Simon says he's proud of Andrew, the pond is restored, and Zach gets to keep the leather jacket. Everybody's happy.

What I Liked
-Lauren rates advertising campaigns based on how likely she would be to sleep with someone who uses the product. That's the same way I rate them.
-Simon beats the penis metaphor to death. That's a weird thing to do around your daughter.
-Andrew and Simon give Lauren dirty looks for eating Peking duck in front of the ducklings. It's like eating a bacon cheeseburger on a farm: It's just not cool.
-"That's my daughter's penis up there." One day, I hope to be proud enough to say that.
-There's a guy in the horror-themed ad who tastes some of the coffee raining down upon him and says "That's actually quite tasty." He's actually in the earlier scene where the coffee rain occurs and you can hear him say the end of "tasty". That's a kind of attention to detail that you don't get out of most shows.
-1980s Simon.

Cosby was an influential guy.

What I Hated
-It seems like the cold opening of each episode is going to feature the gang working with actors/models as they make a video/print ad. This week's didn't really work for me.
-Robin Williams' Jacques Cousteau impression. It wasn't very good.

Final Thoughts
I like what I've seen so far from The Crazy Ones. It remains to be seen if they can keep up the quality of the writing and the acting(people forget that Williams trained at Juilliard under John Houseman), but if it can, then I see no reason why they can't get five or six seasons out of the premise. There will always be more ad campaigns to lampoon and fake products to pitch. They're going to have to do a bit more with Lauren, though. She's basically been window dressing for the first couple episodes.

Unlike dramas, which I recap and review as I go, I watch sitcoms straight through once so I can check how often they make me laugh. This one was funny the first time, but I noticed that I barely laughed at all the second time through. That doesn't bode well for repeat viewings.

That's not really important, though. I laughed the first time I watched it, and that's all that matters to me. Although, a lot of the jokes were a bit easy. I love low-hanging dick jokes as much as the next man, but they're not exactly the height of wit.