Castle 6x08: A Murder is Forever

What I Liked
-They brought back tech officer whatshername. She's on the show a lot, but she's still not a very good character. It's not entirely her fault, though, the dialogue she gets isn't so great.
-Esposito considers taking the diamond and making a run for it. That's what I'd do.
-Castle makes a pun that would've made even David Caruso groan. They can't all be winners.

What I Hated
-The dudes who try to steal the diamond from Ryan and Esposito are wearing clown masks. That's so 2008.
-The cleaner has a magic shredder and a magic computer. It's really hard to permanently delete files quickly, and it's impossible to just shred something so it can't be reassembled... at least not with any technology you could fit in a portable device.

Final Thoughts
A diamond heist isn't this show's typical fare. Sure there was a murder, but they spent the bulk of the episode dealing with a big, shiny rock. Although it was somewhat novel, it ultimately didn't work for me, simply because most of the episode just didn't make any damn sense. You can't unload machine guns at two cops in the middle of New York and get away with it anymore. Bloomberg outlawed that.

TBBT 7x09: The Thanksgiving Decoupling

What I Liked
-An animal can be both sacred and delicious. Exactly. Just because something is sacred, it doesn't mean you can't eat it.
-Sheldon would love to go to Thanksgiving dinner, but it sounds awful. That kind of honesty would make the holidays a lot more pleasant for everyone.
-Bernadette with a marshmallow in her mouth.

It's a simple gag, but a good one.

What I Hated
-Sheldon compares himself to a slave... a lot. Not cool.
-Howard's stupid enormous belt buckle.

It's like he's the featherweight boxing champion or something.

Final Thoughts
Honestly, when I first read the title, I thought Penny and Leonard were going to split up. Then, as the episode went on, it seemed more likely. But they worked it out in the end, which is good, because they've already broken up a couple times, and doing it again would be boring.

Drunk Sheldon is best Sheldon. They should really have him drink more often. Maybe turn him into an alcoholic or something. It would give his character more depth.

It was good to see Zack back on the show. He's one of the recurring characters that I actually like. Not like Lucy or whatsherface in the HR department at CalTech. And I don't just hate them because they're women; it's because they suck.

I think this is the first time we've seen what the gang gets up to on Thanksgiving. Considering how much Sheldon and Leonard loathe their families and the fact that Raj's parents are in India, it makes sense that they'd spend it with Howard's mother. But I have to say that no self-respecting overbearing Jewish mother would let gout stop her from cooking on Thanksgiving. Of all the things this show does, that was probably the least realistic.

TBBT 7x08: The Itchy Brain Simulation

What I Liked
-Amy and Bernadette get their own drinks because Penny is slow. That's one of the perks of being friends with the bartender... sort of.
-Raj wonders why the key is always confidence and not love handles and flop sweat. A lot of men wonder that at some point in their lives.
-Raj loves Penny because she gets him dates. It's weird to love a woman who gets you dates with other women, but I suppose it's a different kind of love.

What I Hated
-They brought Lucy back. That was completely unnecessary; she was a terrible character, and Raj had achieved closure, more or less.
-The itchy sweater is way too itchy. Like ridiculously, comically so. But it wasn't funny.

Final Thoughts
It was a bit strange to see Sheldon actually be devious and vindictive. Normally he's above those sorts of things. Perhaps he's not a robot after all.

The Crazy Ones 1x09: 16 Inch Softball

What I Liked
-Andrew had to tell his girlfriend the truth, even though it was a lie. That's the best way to do it.
-Flizz.

Andrew's right, it's time for Rice Krispies to get a new mascot. Maybe tone down the outfit a bit first, though.

-Lauren's baseball outfit.

Time for a remake of A League of Their Own.

What I Hated
-Weird softball training semi-montage thing. Nothing about it was good.

Final Thoughts
Their first recurring villain (such as he is) has finally recurred, and it's TV's Brad Garrett.

Behold, the face of evil.

The cavalier attitude with which they approached the loss of someone's livelihood was a little distressing. I realize that it's just a TV show, but it sort of makes me wonder if the writers are living in that show business bubble where they don't understand how bad the economy is. Sure, it's fun to play softball and to joust on pocket motorcycles, but afterwards, someone's getting fired.

Sydney's just as appalled about it as I am.

This episode wasn't as funny as the previous one. I suppose there's not that much comedy left to be mined from softball.

The Crazy Ones 1x08: The Stan Wood Account

What I Liked
-The finger doesn't lie!

It sure doesn't.

-We finally meet the Lewis in LewisRoberts+Roberts. I was wondering when they'd get around to that.
-No one remembers Ike Turner for his song-writing skills. They shouldn't.
-Ed Asner plays the feeble old woman. Even at his advanced age, he can still act.
-There's a 'never mind horn' at the used car lot. You've gotta have some way to take it back when someone prematurely rings the bell.
-Brad Garrett driving a tiny car.

Ha-ha!

What I Hated
-They didn't show the new Mr. Finger commercial. That's all we really wanted to see.

Final Thoughts
Dang, Ed Asner is looking old and decrepit. I really hope he's still acting because he enjoys it and not because he can't pay his mortgage or something.

It's good to see TV's Brad Garrett back on TV.

This was the funniest episode so far of this series. I really enjoy it, which probably means it'll be cancelled at the end of the season.

Hawaii Five-0 4x08: Akanahe

What I Liked
-Four guys show up to kill Nick Jonas. About freakin' time.
-McGarrett tells Chi he has a very angry disposition. He sure does.
-Cat can't flick things up onto the big screen. He-he.
-The photo that comes up when Steve calls Cat is still goofy.

I tried to do that for my ladyfriend, but it wouldn't work. She's not terribly upset about it.

What I Hated
-Kono explains what a bullet will do to Sato's brain. That probably seemed bad-ass on the page, but it came off REALLY lame.
-The kids are getting naked on webcam. I don't need to see that. Also, Chi McBride really shouldn't have given his daughter her laptop back so quickly.
-A guy hacks his foot off to get rid of a tracking bracelet.
-The guys actually believe a kid can control a plane with a laptop. Computers are not magic, people!

Final Thoughts
So Chi McBride's character and McGarrett now have a grudging respect for one another. I was hoping they'd just kill Chi off, but now he has allies on the team and some kind of shady backstory, so he's going to be around for a while. Not that I'm against Chi McBride in any way -I've actually quite liked some of his work- but the character is unnecessary, and it seems a bit odd for the SWAT captain to suddenly be getting a lot of play when they went three years without mentioning the previous captain.

I really despise TV shows and movies that treat computers like they're magic. It's 2013, not 1991. Everyone and their grandmother has a computer in their pocket these days. Furthermore, while it may be technically possible to screw with a plane's GPS, there's absolutely no way to disable radio communications short of physically damaging the plane's hardware. It's a radio. You can build one out of crap you find lying in the street.

None of the three Bs were represented this week. Partially because Scott Caan wasn't even in the episode, and that kinda precludes any booking or driving of the Camaro. The lack of bikini babes is inexcusable, though. The only reason this episode doesn't get a single-star rating is because of all the violence done to Nick Jonas' face.

Hawaii Five-0 4x07: Ua Nalohia

Deputy Cat's beating dudes up and looking for info on Adam.

Dude gets shanked on his surf board.

Mary adopted a baby. And Taryn Manning looks kinda haggard.

Dead guy was undercover with the ATF.

Mary gets salmonella poisoning, so the boys play Three Men and a Baby.

Daryl Hannah shows up to play a sexy real estate agent.

The woman who was transcribing the guy's reports gave inside info to her boyfriend and they used it to rob the bad guys. Then they killed him when it looked like they might be found out.

Fortunately, there was enough info to take the bad guys down anyway.

Kono's been gone a long time, and the guys need help, so Cat becomes a full-time member of the team.

What I Liked
-"Hey, why is there a baby attached to your chest?" Chin gets straight to the point. I like that about him.
-Baby's first wad o' cash.

Time to make it rain down at gymboree.

-The baby keeps grabbing at Scott Caan's face, but he just keeps on acting like she's not even there. That's one of the signs of a professional. Also, it's one of the signs that you should never work with kids or animals.

What I Hated
-The guy followed a woman who was dressed all sexy-like and who he didn't know down to a basement just because she whispered in his ear. He deserved to get beaten and arrested; she was either a hooker, a cop, or she was gonna roll him.
-Even though we haven't seen her since last season, apparently Chin's been dating Leilani, and she knows him well enough to know that he always eats pancakes for breakfast.

It's bad.

-Chi McBride's character. He's around solely to be a grumpy antagonist for McGarrett, much as eight years ago he was around solely to be a grumpy antagonist for House.

Final Thoughts
Charlie's still alive. I really thought they had killed him off at the end of last season.

No Kono again, and now Cat's a full member of the Five-0 team. Looks like the rumours of Grace Park leaving the show might be true.

Kind of a mediocre episode that didn't have any of the three Bs. But at least it wasn't blatantly offensive, and they brought in Daryl Hannah to sex things up bit, which was nice.