Nov. 1, 2013

This week was some sort of tragedy. Not living in the states anymore, I forget when the television companies take weeks off for holidays and such, and my excitement for the installments of this week was squished mightily. Though, two of the four shows I yell about here debuted new episodes, so it wasn’t a total wash. I’m sad I’ll have to wait a week for New Girl and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., so expect my expectations for next week’s TV review blast to be a wee bit high.

Let’s start where we always do, with How I Met Your Mother. Being the week of Halloween, the creators of our favorite over-long love story thought to tweak their narrative to foist Halloween-y stuff onto it. The result was a big pile of nonsense, but at least with some good laughs. Remember last week, when Daphne sent the text message to Lily about Marshall’s impending judgehood? Well, we started right where we left off, Marshall frantically calling Barney, Ted, and Robin to delete the message. In a Halloween subplot, Lily was placed in a supposedly haunted room. Naturally, the two plotlines got all up in each other’s business, leading to Ted being mistaken for the ghost, and then Robin… was a Power Ranger? The latter part of the episode was a confused mess, but at least Robin and Barney had the time to talk about their marital issues (because what’s a wacky episode without emotional development?). But the redeeming factor: Marshall confessed to Lily, and Lily gave the camera a death stare, telling Marshall he was as good as dead. Foreshadowing!

But oh man you guys Elementary was really, really great. This week we actually got to see some of the acting chops of other folks in the show, most notably Aidan Quinn, who plays Captain Gregson. The episode’s mystery revolved around a home invasion involving Gregson’s house, leading into some backstory about Gregson and his marital separation. Sherlock, who’s been quick to hate on marriage (even more so in this episode), had to dig deep emotionally to deal with Gregson, who he believes a valuable friend. Actually, the thematic content of the episode was much more interesting than the mystery itself (Jonny Lee Miller keeps on surprising us with his performance), but it was pretty impressive to watch a home invasion turn into a epic little plan involving the sale of ancient artifacts. Also, the conclusion to the episode, the solution to the mystery, borrowed heavily from Doyle’s “The Mystery of the Silver Blaze,” which was pretty awesome.

An honorable mention goes this week to the Nickelodeon cartoon The Legend of Korra. Because I was craving my usual TV, I had to rely on my backup shows, and this installment was one of the best of the series so far, bringing me back to my slightly younger days (you know, when Avatar the Last Airbender was in its first and second seasons). American cartoons could learn a lot from studying the mastery of Korra; this stuff is for real, and is still the only show like it on television.

Let’s hope next week has all four of my shows back up and running, and to a standard I can be jolly about.