Finale

The curtain closes on Doctor Who series nine with the show’s first three-parter since series three and while it’s not perfect, the extended finale is a fitting end to what has been one of NuWho’s most consistent seasons.

With “The Good Man”, Fear The Walking Dead wraps up its first season, a decidedly mixed bag.

Vincenzo Natali, who directed last week’s episode, returns as director for the finale and presents the best-looking episode of the series so far.

Hannibal and Will’s first scene together begins in Hannibal’s memory palace but notably, the organ-based scoring for the Norman Chapel and the Italy arc is not used. Instead, we get clustered clarinets and winds.

Parenthood has had an uneven season. After starting the year out promisingly, odd and unexamined character choices started to take over the show, leaving the audience to connect the dots to understand the extreme reactions (or lack of reactions) demonstrated by several characters. Joel, swamped at work (except when he isn’t), reacts poorly to Julia’s indiscretion and leaves. Hank’s back, but he’s not with Sarah, and no one knows why. Kristina runs for mayor, because remission? , and Adam, inspired by her, convinces Crosby to start their own label. Several of these storylines overstayed their welcome, stretched too thinly over the 22-episode season, but fortunately the finale draws more heavily from the narratively energetic start of the season than the slog that was much of its second half.

Survivor Review, Season 27, Episode 14 “It’s My Night” Airs Wednesday at 8pm (ET) on CBS The challenge when analyzing Survivor is finding thrills when the finale reaches a predictable ending. This trend has happened frequently in recent seasons, with Malcolm’s exit from the Philippines being a rare exception. Even so, there’s still plenty to enjoy with Blood …

All season, Boardwalk Empire’s decision to focus on a fractured group of characters has hampered its ability to give its long-running arcs weight. The highlights, and there have been a few, have been in episodes pared down of extraneous characters, allowing the writers and performers to create specific, episode-long journeys. In “Farewell Daddy Blues”, due to the writers’ unwillingness to trim the ridiculously talented fat throughout season four, several characters’ journeys come to a less-than-compelling close and one in particular winds up his time on the show memorably, but nowhere near as emotionally as he deserves.

The third season of AMC’s Hell on Wheels has been its best yet- powerful, quick witted, thrilling, and consistently entertaining. Director Neil LaBute, who directed one of the season’s most effective episodes, “Searchers”, returns to the season finale.

And with a crazy stare from Marco Ruiz, the tumultuous first season of The Bridge comes to a close. At times it was enthralling – and at many other times, frustrating: but always intriguing, even when the show was in the midst of its David Tate nosedive (which unfortunately still exists… but we’ll get to that). ‘The Crazy Place’ is all of that wrapped into one neat 43-minute episode, a series of promising and not-so-promising new directions for the second season.

Breaking Bad, Season 5, Episode 16: “Felina” Written by Vince Gilligan Directed by Vince Gilligan Airs Sundays at 9pm ET on AMC – “I did it for me.” – After Walter White utters these words, the rest of “Felina,” the final episode of Breaking Bad, almost doesn’t matter. It’s a definitive punctuation mark, the ultimate …

Leave it to Mad Men to make the inevitable seem surprising. The way Don has acted this season—from Jaguar, to warring with Ted, to his Hershey pitch—it’s unfathomable that he would escape without reprimand, yet the moment he is asked to step away from his job is truly shocking. Perhaps because more than anything else—his wife, his family, his relationships—his job is what defined him as Don Draper. Part of me expected the episode to end as the elevator doors closed in front of his face, the man brought in as his replacement smugly asking “going down?” It would have been unbearably dark, but fitting for a season that began with Don reading Dante’s Inferno on the beach.

Hannibal Season 1, Episode 13 ‘Savoureux’ Written by Bryan Fuller, Steve Lightfoot & Scott Nimerfro Directed by David Slade returns for season two in 2013 (note: Randy is filling in for Ricky this week. You can read Randy’s reviews of Hannibal and other shows at Processed Media). As we’ve seen, Hannibal Lecter is a fan of the …

Back in ‘Plato’s Cave’ (which is my favorite hour of television so far this year, in case you’re keeping track), Daniel and Tawney have long talks about the intersection of reality and faith as Daniel struggled to find ways to reconcile himself with the changed, but still unforgiving Paulie, Georgia he returned to. ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ puts faith to the side (mostly) for a moment and replaces it with danger, as the threats existing mostly in Daniel’s peripherals greets him face to face.

Series 7B of Doctor Who has been markedly uneven. From the delightfully stylized (though troublingly sexual assault-y) “The Crimson Horror” to the beautiful but nonsensical “The Rings of Akhaten”, almost every episode has peppered interesting visuals or premises with frustrating character touches and plot contrivances

The Vampire Diaries, Season 4, Episode 23: “Graduation” Written by Caroline Dries and Julie Plec Directed by Chris Grismer Airs Thursdays at 8pm (ET) on the CW This week, on The Vampire Diaries: Everyone graduates, we meet Silas, and Elena makes her choice The Vampire Diaries has had a wildly uneven season four. Yes we’ve …

With a title like ‘Sacrifice’, there was no denying that someone was going to die in tonight’s episode. And although ‘Sacrifice’ tries to get clever with a few expected misleads (one that lands really well), Arrow decides to eliminate the easiest option – but one I wished they hadn’t, for reasons I’ll explain later.

It’s been a big year already for TV comedy wedding, Parks and Recreation, Happy Endings, The Office, How I Met Your Mother (kind of), and even Community with its marriage/graduation mashup. And last night it was time for New Girl to take a stab at nuptials with the doomed-from-the-start ceremony between Cece and Shivrang.

Revenge, Season 2, Episode 21: “Truth, Part 1” Written by Michael Foley and Nikki Toscano Directed by Randy Zisk Revenge, Season 2, Episode 22: “Truth, Part 2” Written by Mike Kelley and Mark B. Perry Directed by J. Miller Tobin Airs Sundays at 9pm (ET) on ABC This season of Revenge has been as rocky …

The destruction of Storybrooke, by Greg and Tamara, was the main focus of the episode. Everyone was on top of their scenes tonight. We found ourselves being pulled into the television set and rooting for everyone. Even the most unlikely of heroes stepped up and fought to help in their own way including, Regina, Rumplestiltskin and Hook.

It’s been an interesting season for Cougar Town, one that’s had it’s share of emotional highs (‘Make It Better’) and overly broad comedic lows (last week’s ‘The Criminal Kind’). Tonight’s two-part season finale falls somewhere in the middle: it’s one of the funnier episodes of the season, but is often too sentimental for its own good, despite having its heart in the right place in the most important moments, when the themes of family and hope are at their strongest.

Tonight Carrie fills the last pages of her first diary, and damn does she fill them. After a handful of dry episodes, The Carrie Diaries finally gives itself permission to flush out its plot, four kyddshaw shakeups included. More importantly, someone finally acknowledges the shows tendency to dip its toes into the jail-bait pool when it comes to relationships, though disappointingly, with the least predatory example of the bunch.

Take Marnie for example. Last season, she dumped Charlie because she felt smothered by him. He loved her to death, overcompensating for her withdrawn ways. But as soon as she breaks up with him, she wants him back, attempting to sabotage his new relationship, and entering this season on a quest to “find herself”, which summed up to a lot of her whining and sleeping with Booth and Charlie. After having sex in the office after her painful solo performance in ‘On All Fours’, Charlie and Marnie realize they love each other, and that they should be together.

Fringe, Season 5, Episode 12: “Liberty” Written by Alison Schapker Directed by P. J. Pesce Fringe, Season 5, Episode 13: “An Enemy of Fate” Written by J. H. Wyman Directed by J. H. Wyman Aired Fridays at 9pm (ET) on FOX This week, on Fringe: Olivia goes for a final jaunt Over There, Michael goes …