True Blood, 1x06, “Cold Ground”

Episode Title: Cold Ground
Writer: Raelle Tucker
Director: Nick Gomez
Originall Aired: 10/12/2008
Grade: A+

This was a beautiful episode, well-done Raelle Tucker. Supernatural may not be as good without Tucker, but I’m glad she’s on this show instead.

Sookie’s freakout over the pie, and then her crying as she ate the last pie her grandmother baked was heartbreaking. I mean, truly, poignantly, relatably heartbreaking. Many, many people associate their grandmothers with good, comforting, made-with-love food, so it was a perfect way to illustrate Sookie’s grief.

Mrs. Fortenberry’s thoughts about how she should have gotten there sooner to see the blood and maybe she should’ve brought red velvet cake were horrid beyond the point of believability. We all have strange and inappropriate thoughts, but we usually have the decency to feel guilty about them even within our own heads. She didn’t sound guilty at all, and the inside of her brain was disgusting to the point where I’m wondering if she becomes a murderer at some point in the future.

Speaking of murder, again, some more, I do think the strangling attempt on Sookie was real, and the fact that she survived is, I’m guessing, due to the infusion of V she got from Bill in the second episode.

The romantic cliché with the white nightgown and running through the night to Bill was almost like a joke, but it worked with her character as presented on the show. I can see Sookie wanting to make a dramatic ritual out of it, especially in her grief, and especially because if she’s been a virgin for this long, there may be a traumatic reason why. It was also rather refreshing that Bill biting her for the first time was visceral and, well, gross, as opposed to sexy and romantic.

As for Tara and her mother, I am speechless. Somewhere along the way, Tara became my favorite character on the show. I’m not sure when it started, because I thought she was obnoxious in the pilot, and I can’t even put into words why I like her so much, but there it is. I’m not sure I like this demon angle, which is also hard to explain. I guess it’s because it sounds supernatural in a “Christian” way, whereas the other supernatural things on this show seem to fall outside of religion? I just don’t want to start seeing angels and demons—I can go watch this season of Supernatural if I want that. I’m definitely hoping this “demon” is figurative and psychological, not a literal supernatural being.

Supernatural, 4x04, “Metamorphosis”

Episode Title: Metamorphosis
Writer: Cathryn Humphris
Director: Kim Manners
Oroginall Aired: 10/09/2008
Grade: B+

I wasn’t terribly interested in the episode plot here, but this episode still managed to address the myth arc, the brotherly relationship, and Sam and Dean’s individual development.

I was glad to see that Dean told Sam about his trip to the past, and that Sam didn’t manage to keep his secret from Dean for very long. The writers have been there and done that, and it would’ve felt cheap to do it again, not to mention that both brothers should’ve learned from their past mistakes. Having it all out there in the open so early makes the pace of the season feel more urgent rather than ponderous. We can actually be excited and curious about what’s coming next, rather than feel like we’re just sitting around waiting for something that we already know to be revealed to Sam or Dean.

As for Dean punching Sam, I didn’t have a problem with it. Their conflict in this episode was actually fairly complex. On the one hand, Dean was acting like a terrified bigot, but on the other hand, Dean was specifically told by AN ANGEL that Sam was heading down the wrong path, so it’s kind of hard to blame him for being so judgmental. Plus I’d be pretty fucking pissed if I’d gone to Hell to save my brother’s life, and he chose to start doing the one thing that might just guarantee his own spot in Hell. And yet I can also empathize with Sam’s wish to “take this curse and make something good out of it.”

It seems like the most obvious endgame for Azazel’s plan was to create some sort of perfect vessel for Lucifer. That seems a bit too obvious, but then again, maybe it’s not supposed to be some big mystery for the entire season, and is instead another thing they plan to reveal fairly early on. If that’s the case, I can deal with it being a little obvious. It seems like something Ruby would have to be in on, though, given her encouragement of Sam using his abilities.

Privileged, 1x05, “All About Friends and Family”

Episode Title: All About Friends and Family
Writer: Michael Reisz
Director: Joanna Kerns
Originally Aired: 10/07/2008
Grade: A

This episode was a little heavy on the Megan/Lily drama but still quite enjoyable. Kristina Apgar's acting style doesn't mesh perfectly with Joanna Garcia's, but I do think she's improved greatly. I really felt for Lily in this episode, and I did think Megan was pretty harsh to her. With good reason, but still, her behavior didn't look understandable to anyone but the viewing audience, Lily, and Rose. I do like that Megan has faults, as long as it doesn't end up going the way of Veronica Mar's Season 3.

I also thought it was nice touch that though Charlie was humiliated by Will in front of Marco and whoever else was watching, he was ultimately right about Megan and Lily. There was a theme is this episode of both Megan and Charlie making asses out of themselves publicly, but ending up being right in the end, even though few people actually know it.

Still, Charlie was definitely acting passive-aggressive with Will in this episode. It could be argued that Will was a bit harsh with him, but I'm not a big fan of passive-aggressive behavior myself, so I completely understand why Will didn't let Charlie get away with his poorly concealed "making barbed comments and trying to make them seem benign" act.

Will's defense of Lily to Megan toward the end of the episode is a little harder to call, but honestly, after seeing Megan be so quick to accuse her sister and then fly off the handle, I don't blame Will for defending Lily. Will was technically on the "wrong side" because Lily did indeed steal the bracelet, but whatever I think of the skeeziness of dating the sister of someone you're interested in, I like that Will can stand up to Megan. And despite being ultimately right, Megan didn't handle the situation well. And neither did Charlie, for that matter. And they both know it.

As for Charlie’s epiphany, something about the way the scenes were written made his thought process confusing for me, but I think I finally figured it out. He offered to help Megan with the twins' party because he's in love with her (with a likely secondary motivation of wanting to scope out Will), but she clearly thought he offered to help because he's her friend. That was obvious. What took me a while to get is that he's been living with the delusion that some day, she's going to look at all the really nice things he's done for her and realize why he's doing them, without him ever having to say so. And he finally realized how delusional that is. He even sort of said all of that to Marco, but somehow it still wasn't quite clear to me. I guess because they phrased it more as "I'm a moron and Megan's never going to see me as more than a friend" than "I’m a moron because Megan's never going to realize that I do all this nice stuff for her because I have feelings for her."

Regarding Charlie’s likely change in attitude in the next few episodes, I think it's fine for him to distance himself, and maybe be slightly snippy, but it has to be completely clear that he is angry at himself and not at Megan. If it's played as him being angry at Megan, then it's just playing too close to the nasty "nice guy" stereotype, i.e. the nice guy who's not really a nice guy because he gets pissed off that the object of his affection doesn't read his mind and reward his lusty feelings with hugs and kisses and sex. I do not even remotely think that this is what Charlie is--he's too good a friend to her, despite having a few jealousy-induced hiccups--but a writing misstep could make it appear so.

Finally, Charlie needs to be fleshed out a bit more. We know that he's a waiter, that he loves Megan, that they've been friends for a very long time, that he likes to surf, that he's cute, and that he's apparently not gay. That's definitely not much to go on.

Chuck, 2x02, “Chuck vs. the Seduction”

Episode Title: Chuck vs. the Seduction
Writer: Matt Miller
Director: Allan Kroeker
Originally Aired: 10/06/2008
Grade: A

I thought they used the guest stars really well in this episode. With two in one ep, it could have easily been overkill, but I never felt like they were running the show. Everything they said and did related to either the episode plot or the development of the main character relationships. If they all play out like this, I think the plethora of guest stars this season will work out fine.

Yet another soft-focus Sarah porn intro in this episode… it’s still not bugging me too much because it feels at least as purposeful as it is shameless.

I actually thought the big Roan-ordered kiss looked lame in the promos, but it was somehow awesome in the actual episode. I fully admit I rewound both of the kisses, partly because they were just plain hot, and partly because I was surprised at how much more natural they felt than the one from last season. That one wasn't bad, just awkward, which made sense given the circumstances, but it was still nice to see these less awkward kisses.

I was slightly annoyed with Chuck for getting his panties in a bunch over Sarah telling Roan that she doesn't have feelings for Chuck and he's just an asset. I mean, I can understand that hearing those words would bother him a bit, that he would worry she's using him, but he knows Sarah is often not forthcoming about her life and her emotions even with people she knows pretty well. Obviously she could have just been telling the truth, and I know his self-esteem is still fairly low, but it would have been nice if it had occurred to him that she was lying to maintain her professionalism.

I didn't notice his name in the credits, but I knew Bryce was going to be in Sarah's room. Namely because had he not been, Chuck and Sarah might have actually had sex--she was just that into him in this episode--but I knew it would never happen so soon.

As for the Chuck/Sarah relationship, they're definitely selling it hard right now, probably to make sure that viewers have as many vivid Chuck/Sarah memories as possible when they inevitably tear them apart to date other people. It is all fairly predictable, but the characters are so likable that I can have fun with it anyway.