Girls, Season 3: Episode 5 – “Only Child” Written by Murray Miller Directed by Tricia Brock Airs Friday nights at 10 PM EST on HBO In “Only Child”, Murray Miller moves the season’s overall plot along and creates a lot of tension between the characters of Girls. While trying to save her “dead” book, Hannah (Lena …
Girls, Season 3, Episode 4, “Dead Inside” Written by Judd Apatow and Lena Dunham Directed by Jesse Peretz Airs Sundays at 10pm (EST) on HBO Like last week’s episode which focused mainly on Hannah’s (Lena Dunham) 25th birthday party, “Dead Inside” takes another big moment in her life and uses it as a lens …
Girls Season 3, Episode 3 “She Said OK” Written by Lena Dunham and Jennie Konner Directed by Jesse Peretz Airs Sundays at 10 PM ET on HBO In “She Said OK”, writers Lena Dunham and Jennie Konner slam on the brakes after the big Jessa-centric events of the last two episodes and put plot on the backburner. …
Girls, Season 3, Episode 1, “Female Only” Written by Lena Dunham Directed by Lena Dunham Girls, Season 3, Episode 2, “Truth or Dare” Written by Jenni Konner Directed by Lena Dunham Airs Sundays at 10pm (EST) on HBO A common complaint from Girls viewers is that the protagonists are quite unsympathetic, especially its main character Hannah Horvath …
17. American Horror Story (FX- tie) With the climactic final four episodes of Asylum and the entertaining first nine of Coven, American Horror Story has had a diverse year, to say the least. Asylum wrapped up its exploration of health care, religion, and power and Coven dove in head-first with looks at gender roles, aging, …
2013 was an incredible year for standout episodes – even, in some cases, for series that didn’t necessarily have a great year overall. Prompted by this wealth of televised riches, TV editor Kate Kulzick, Televerse cohost Simon Howell, general editor Ricky D, and managing editor for TV Randy Dankievitch brainstormed and compiled their personal favorites, with only those deemed worthy by a majority making the cut. The resulting list of survivors (organized by airdate) is a wonderfully diverse picture of the medium at work in 2013, in 15-to-60 minute chunks.
As my Televerse cohost Simon Howell and I discussed in our Top 10 TV Series of 2013 (So Far), this has been a spectacular year for television, with many shows delivering remarkably consistent seasons (or half-seasons) of memorable, moving television. A number of series were in contention for our Top 10 but didn’t quite make …
There have been some excellent episodes of Mad Men this season. “The Flood,” “Man with a Plan,” and especially “For Immediate Release” have all been varying degrees of great, but “The Crash” is the first episode to leave me dumbstruck with awe the way so many season five episodes did. It’s an episode in which every scene seems precisely crafted to achieve an effect. What is that effect?
As Smash heads into the final stretch, most likely for good, this Saturday’s episode gives the audience an overdue taste of what Hit List is all about. But it might be too little too late. Why are we just now getting to see the heart of Hit List? Before the second season even began the audience knew everything there is to know about Bombshell so why after nearly a whole season does Smash now get around to showing us the whole of Hit List (or at least the best part when Karen gets shot)?
Last night we saw the finale of the second season of the brilliant HBO series Girls. Creator Lena Dunham receives a lot of backlash for her use of full frontal nudity and the show in general but Girls is one of the best television shows around right now. Yes the characters aren’t always likeable and the story lines don’t always …
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.
Girls Season 2, Episode 9 ‘On All Fours’ Directed by Lena Dunham Written by Lena Dunham & Jenni Konner airs Sunday nights at 9pm ET on HBO (Note: I usually write about Girls on my website, Processed Media – but this week, I’m filling in for the normal Girls reviewers over here with my thoughts on ‘On All Fours’). Like last …
Girls, Season 2, Episode 8: “It’s Back” Written by Bruce Eric Kaplan Directed by Richard Shepard Airs Sundays at 9pm ET on HBO Too many Freaks, not enough circuses – AA counselor’s t-shirt Introducing a new aspect to an established character is a tricky business. You run the risk of continuity problems with what’s come before, …
Girls, Season 2, Episode 7: “Video Games” Written by Bruce Eric Kaplan and Lena Dunham Directed by Richard Shephard Original air date: February 24, 2013 In an episode totally in the spirit of season 1’s “The Return”, this week’s episode of Girls sees Jessa and Hannah take a little trip to the countryside to meet with …
Girls, Season 2, Episode 6: “Boys” Written by Murray Miller & Lena Dunham Directed by Claudia Weil Original Air date: 17 Feb 2013 A compelling follow-up to one of the more contentious episodes of the series, we move forward from Hannah’s realization that she wants the white picket fence to a cluster-fuck of characters in …
Girls, Season 2, Episode 5: “One Man’s Trash” Written by Lena Dunham Directed by Richard Shephard Airs Sundays at 9pm ET on HBO Hannnah Horvath can be a deeply tiring individual. She’s self-centered almost to the point of pathology, she has a probably-inflated sense of her own talent, and she has an infuriating tendency to reject …
Girls, Season 2, Episode 3: “It’s a Shame about Ray” Written by Lena Dunham Directed by Jesse Peretz Original Air Date: February 2, 2013 In Luis Bunuel’s 1962 film, The Exterminating Angel, some high society types have a party and inexplicably find they are incapable of leaving. As the days and weeks pass, their values, behavior and …
Girls, Season 2, Episode 3: “Bad Friend” Written by Lena Dunham and Sarah Heyward Directed by Jesse Peretz Airs Sundays at 9pm ET on HBO Filling in for Justine Smith, who shall return post-haste. “What does cocaine make you feel like? It makes you feel like having more cocaine.” – George Carlin Coke is …
Girls Season 2 Episode 2 Written by Lena Dunham & Jennifer Konner Directed by Lena Dunham Original Air Date: January 20 2013 In this episode of Girls we move into the consequences and effects of the season opener: Ray and Shoshanna get all cutesy, Marnie gets a pretty person job, Jessa is perfectly happy and …
Girls Seaseon 2 Episode 1: “It’s About Time” Directed by Lena Dunham Written by Lena Dunham & Jennifer Konner Airs Sundays at 9pm ET on HBO Courting with controversy even before it hit the air, Girls has been lavished with praise, criticism and outrage as it portrays the awkward lives of a group of twenty-something …
The Return of Arrested Development Nobody was really paying attention to Netflix’s talk about ‘original programming’ until they snatched up the rights to Mitch Hurwitz’s classic family sitcom, bringing it back for a fourth season after more than half a decade off the air. The details of the season are being kept under wraps for …
10. (tie) The Thick of It Is there a better tonic for election-year hype than an Armando Iannucci series? The apparently-final series of the show that made Iannucci’s name, The Thick Of It, upped the ante on its pitch-black style, stripping nearly all of its characters of any remaining semblances of humanity and daring us …
With new seasons of existing shows to get me through the year, this list was a hard one to devise. 10. FOX’s Napoleon Dynamite Following the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite the series follows the adventures of Dynamite and his family and friends. With Simpsons/Parks and Rec producer Mike Scully as executive producer, the franchise has …